Firewalls and Web access

[Bob Duncan]

Color me stupid, but I've just run into a situation that has me adrift in 
brain numbness.  Any assistance would be appreciated.

Our campus network folks just installed a new firewall, and now we have 
lost access to all our subscription resources which rely on authentication 
via IP-address recognition.  Apparently this is because the firewall is 
stopping most incoming traffic and its IP address is not within the range 
of addresses we supply vendors.

Our network folks are new at firewalls, and I am only familiar with the 
general concepts.  What are the options for restoring access to all of our 
Web-based resources?  Supplying the firewall address to vendors seems like 
less work than allowing inbound access for each vendor machine (which is 
also a bit of a moving target), but neither seems terribly palatable.  Is 
there a way that IP-address recognition can work without compromising 
campus security?  (And is this a typical configuration for a college campus?)

Thanks,

Bob Duncan


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Robert E. Duncan
Systems Librarian
David Bishop Skillman Library
Lafayette College
Easton, PA  18042
duncanr at lafayette.edu
http://www.library.lafayette.edu/