Software firewall control

A method performed by a computing device having a plurality of network interfaces, the computing device comprising a firewall, the firewall associated with the plurality of network interfaces, the method comprising:

• accessing association information indicating associations between network interface types and network types, the association information indicating which of the network interface types are associated with which of the network types, automatically identifying, for each network interface, a corresponding network interface type and obtaining a corresponding network type from the association information, and storing interface association information indicating the obtained network interface types of the network interfaces, respectively;
• accessing firewall rules, each firewall rule indicating a respective different network type;
• determining, and storing in the storage, associations of the firewall rules with the network interfaces by matching the individual network types from the interface association information with the network types from the firewall rules to individually match the network interfaces with the firewall rules, wherein any of the network interfaces indicated in the interface association information to be a given network interface type are associated with a corresponding same firewall rule based on the corresponding same firewall rule indicating the given network interface type;
• and
• regulating communications configured to pass through the network interfaces by the firewall implementing the firewall rules according to the determined associations of the firewall rules in the storage.

A computing device comprising:

• a network interface;
• storage comprising memory, the storage storing a firewall element;
• and
• a processor, the memory and the processor configured to cooperate to handle network communications configured to pass to and from the computing device via the network interface;
• the processor and storage configured to:
• use the memory to implement a firewall that is compatible with the firewall element;
• identify a generic network category corresponding to the network interface by obtaining an identifier of the network interface and applying the identifier to association information comprising associations between network interface identifiers and generic network categories, the generic network categories including the generic network category;
• store in the storage a first indication indicating that the identified generic network category corresponds to the network interface;
• access a second indication in the storage, the second indication indicating a generic network category that corresponds to the firewall element;
• and
• determine whether the firewall is to enforce the firewall element with respect to the network communications by determining whether the generic network category from the first indication matches the generic network category from the second indication.

A computing device comprising:

• a network interface;
• a processor and storage configured to implement a firewall module, the storage comprising a device record of the network interface, the device recording comprising a network interface category of the network interface,
• the firewall module stored in the storage and configured to be executed by the processor to:
• implement at least one network-type rule configured to determine whether network communications are passed through by the firewall;
• access the network-type rule, the network-type rule identifying a type of network to which the network-type rule is specifically applicable;
• access interface information indicating associations between network interface categories and network types, the network interface categories including the network interface category of the network interface, and the network types including the network type of the network-type rule;
• determine that the network-type rule is applicable to the network interface by obtaining the network-type from the network-type rule and based thereon accessing the interface information and finding therein the network interface category from the device record;
• and
• based on having determined that the network-type rule is applicable to the network interface, apply the network-type rule to network communications associated with the network interface.