What is a firewall?
A firewall is a software application or a hardware system (such as a router or a standalone physical firewall) that acts as a shield between your computer network and the internet to enforce security policies by controlling the traffic flow of information. A firewall prevents malware and other unauthorized attempts to access your computer via your network or the internet by monitoring incoming information. It also monitors outgoing information to prevent your computer or network from sending potentially malicious content.
Thomson Reuters emphasizes the importance of working in a secure environment that includes up-to-date antivirus, antimalware, and firewall solutions when using our CS Professional Suite as well as other applications for processing and storing information for your firm and your firm's clients. Please consult with a qualified IT professional when selecting, implementing, and configuring antivirus, antimalware, and firewall solutions for your firm's network and workstations. Using an appropriate firewall is imperative for ensuring your firm's standards of software performance, stability, and data integrity.
See also: Antivirus guidelines for CS Professional Suite applications
Firewall configuration
Firewall setup considerations
CS Professional Suite applications often need to communicate over your firm's network for multiple reasons, using certain ports and executables in a manner that may not be allowed by default or that could be seen as an unauthorized attempt to access the network. Depending on the configuration of your firewall, that could prevent some features of the CS Professional Suite applications from functioning properly. To avoid problems such as network speed/performance issues, security breaches, and so forth, your firm's IT professional may need to specify certain server and workstation exceptions to your firewall configuration, and the required exceptions depend on which CS applications you use. Application-specific recommendations are detailed in this section.
FileCabinet CS, Fixed Assets CS, and UltraTax CS
SQL-based CS Professional Suite applications
Virtual Office CS or Software as a Service (SaaS) environment
Proxy servers
A proxy server is a computer or application that acts as an intermediary between your CS applications and the internet - to monitor traffic, to filter data, to cache web pages, and so on.
For CS Professional Suite applications that run in the Virtual Office CS or SaaS environment
Due to the wide range of proxy servers and configurations, the functionality of our applications running in the Virtual Office CS or SaaS environment cannot be guaranteed when accessed via proxy servers, and your results with application performance and stability could vary. Please consult with your firm's qualified IT professional if you require further assistance.
If your firm uses a proxy server to access CS Professional Suite applications in the Virtual Office CS or SaaS environment, make sure that the required ports and IP ranges (specified in the Firewall configuration section above) are open. If you are still unable to connect successfully, you should attempt to launch our applications outside of the proxy server environment.
For locally installed CS Professional Suite applications
At this time, CS Professional Suite applications can transmit data via CS Connect using a proxy server. However, there are many different types of proxy servers and various possible configurations within each proxy server environment. We have listed some setup guidelines below, but contact your firm's qualified IT professional if you require further assistance with that setup.
If you are unsuccessful in transmitting information via CS Connect when using a proxy server, try the following troubleshooting steps.
- Run the test connection. Click the CS Connect button on the toolbar of your CS Professional Suite application, click the Communications Setup button, and then click the Test Connection button. If any test fails, continue through this list of troubleshooting steps to correct the connection issue.
- Verify the proxy settings specified for CS Connect. Click the CS Connect button on the toolbar of your CS Professional Suite application, click the Communications Setup button, and then click the Proxy Settings button. Verify that the address and port listed in the Proxy Setup dialog are exactly the same as those listed for your internet browser.
- Respond to a "403 - Authentication is invalid" (or similar) error message. Click the CS Connect button on the toolbar of your CS Professional Suite application, click the Communications Setup button, click the Proxy Settings button, and clear the Proxy Authentication checkbox. This could be an option that you have marked but don't need because that feature is not set up on your proxy server. However, if you are certain that you use proxy authentication, then you need to verify your network username and password with your network administrator, or try using another username and password (possibly the administrator's).
- Verify the settings for required ports. Verify that Port 80 (connect.creativesolutions.com) and Port 443 (secureconnect.creativesolutions.com) are open for both inbound and outbound traffic.
- Determine whether certain firewall and internet security applications interfere with your access to CS Connect. Check to see whether any antivirus programs, spyware, or popup blockers are installed on your workstation; these software applications could prohibit a proxy connection. If any of these are installed, disable them temporarily when attempting to access CS Connect.
Configuration of commonly used firewall products
Thomson Reuters does not endorse a specific firewall vendor or product. If you require additional assistance to configure your firm's firewall, please contact your vendor. Listed below are links to the website support pages for some commonly used firewall vendors.
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