A service object is made of one or more named IP protocols or TCP / UDP ports and port ranges, or a combination of all. For example, the HTTP version of the Smoothwall administration user interface uses TCP port 81, while the HTTPS version uses TCP port 441; you can either create a service object for each individual instance or have one service object containing both port numbers. Furthermore, you can combine multiple service objects into a service object group.
You can create and edit service objects for use throughout the Smoothwall Firewall configuration. Where allowed, using service objects significantly reduces the amount of time taken to configure various aspects of your Smoothwall Firewall. For example, if you need multiple Smoothwall Firewall rules for RADIUS traffic, you can reduce duplication by creating a service object containing the port numbers used by RADIUS used by multiple rules, rather than having duplicate rules for the same port number, further duplicated by the number of rules that you want.
Several default-service objects and service object groups are made available for use on the Service object manager page.
You can either create new service objects on the Service object manager page or add new service objects "as you go" while adding Smoothwall Firewall rules.
Note: If your Smoothwall is part of a centrally managed solution (see our help topic, Setting up a centrally managed system), any service objects or service object groups you create on the parent node are replicated to the child nodes in addition to their own service object configuration. These are prefixed with Replicated: in the relevant user interface pages.
When creating new service objects, it's important to make the distinction between a service object and object group. We recommend that you keep the contents of service objects to protocols and port numbers, that is, those that provide a service, whereas service object groups contain named service objects.