Public addresses in a DMZ
I read your answer to the question dated Nov. 13 about the placement of a DMZ on a network, and you write that a DMZ must have public IP addresses. Why the must? I am running a firewall with four interfaces, one Internet, one internal and two DMZs, both running with private IP addresses and doing just fine.

Is there a reason why you say that it must be public addresse ?

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In the follow-up question, Using NAT rules to map to DMZ posted on Nov. 19, I explained that NAT could be used.

In attempting to answer questions for this column, I realize that I am speaking to a wide audience, some of whom have much more technical capability than others. In the first answer I used the word "must" in an effort to keep the explanation as simple as possible. Clearly the very smart readers of searchSecurity are keeping me honest.

Thanks for taking the time to read the questions and answers and to submit your own.


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This was first published in December 2001