Deleting rules and disconnecting communications

Deleting or disabling a rule does not stop existing communications that were allowed by the rule. Rules are created to allow applications to create communications paths through the firewall. A rule does not create a one-to-one correspondence to a communications path. A rule simply allows a communication path to be created by the applications. A single rule will allow as many concurrent communications paths to be created as the applications require. Rules are independent of the paths that are created.

When a rule is disabled or deleted, the only effect in the firewall is to prevent new communications connections from being created. It does not stop any existing communications. If you want to disable or delete the rule and terminate existing communications you have to change the rule and do one of the following:

• On the web UI's Dashboard summary select disconnect for the specific communications you want to stop. The disconnect function is visible only if you are logged into the firewall as the default admin user.
• On the Dashboard summary click the Deny all button and then click the Normal button. All communications are stopped in Deny all mode.
• Stop the applications on the computers.
• Restart the firewall.

When the communications are terminated and the rule disabled or deleted no new communications can be created using the rule.