Every Packet Passes a Gate Between your device and the open internet sits a gate: firewall rules, NAT translation, and inspection decide what gets through. PackGate.com explains how those checkpoints work and how to run yours well.

Yes, in a basic way. NAT plus a default stateful firewall blocks unsolicited inbound connections. The common weaknesses are old firmware, UPnP opening ports silently, and remote admin left enabled.

A gateway is the routing role — the device traffic must pass to leave the network. A firewall is the filtering role. Most edge devices do both jobs in one box.

Open the narrowest rule possible: one port, one internal device, and prefer VPN access over exposing cameras directly. Anything listening on the open internet gets scanned within minutes.