Ethan Banks of The Peering Introvert comments:
I wrote a long blog post for Network Computing that ended up published in four parts. The topic was helping sysadmins understand what firewall appliances do, and therefore how best to ask for firewall assistance from those who manage them.
A must read article series for anyone that knows what a firewall is but doesn’t know how to make it do the things it does.
Read more at: Firewall Administration for Sysadmins in Four Parts