Talk:Firewall (construction)

comments
What is that image? It should be at least labelled, such as it is.

Passive fire protection expert edit
My edits are supported by building code and test experience in Germany, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong and the US. The reference to DuraSteel is available from Cape DuraSteel in the UK.--Achim 01:23, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

The network firewall description should be here!
Surely most people typing in, or searching for, firewall generally want the computer hardware/software description of a firewall. It seems much more prudent to me to put this *much* more popular description as the main firewall page and link to this building description as an alt page. Anyone agree?


 * It's now disambiguated so that it's all even. --Joy &#91;shallot&#93;   17:30, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Name origin
The name Firewall may have come from the need to hide signal fires as mentioned in these two articles.

Medieval Fibre Optics, BBCh2G2 Medieval Fibre Optics

...

For instance to send the message 'Help, the invading army is about to land on our shores' would take several tons of well stacked wood and manual rather than electronic ignition.

...

The “cavalry” would decode 'The enemy has landed, please come as soon as possible..

The invaders would decode the signal as:- 'I think they have seen us.' - Which just goes to prove that network security issues have been around for a very long time and soon led to the development of the first very tall 'Firewall' to protect sensitive data


 * Almost certainly a false etymology. That article refers to a firewall (networking) anyways. -Talyian

Historical
David Lyle in The Book of Masonry Stoves writes: "The Chinese long ago learned to divide thier cities into districts separated by very wide avenues. These acted as firebreaks to prevent flames from spreading from district to district, and perhaps engulfing the entire city.  In Rome Emperor Augustu built a one hundred and fifteen foot fire wall to protect his forum from fires that often swept a nearby tenement district." p48 in my copy.

Also "The northern border of the forum was bounded by a peperino firewall that acted as a buffer between the Subura and the Roman Forum itself." in this pdf

Somebody more invested in this entry might fold some portion of that in. A link to fire break seems useful. Bhyde 20:09, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

"high fire challenge occupancies"
It would be nice if "high fire challenge occupancies" which require high challenge firewalss could be explained or defined. Are they buildings likely to burn particularly long and hot? or ones particulalry likely to catch fire? or both? DES (talk) 13:08, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

The closest North American reference to this is probably NFPA 221, which can be seen here:
 * NFPA 221: Standard for High Challenge Fire Walls, Fire Walls, and Fire Barrier Walls
 * You will need to buy a copy. Apart from that, the categorisation of buildings is a function of the local building code. The architect decides and categorises the occupancy and submits that to the municipality for approval by requesting a building permit.

--Achim (talk) 20:45, 28 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Basically, occupancies that contain sufficient amounts of combustible contents to result in long sustained fires are 'high challenge', As examples, storage warehouses are high challenge, offices are not. Kilmer-san (talk) 01:57, 30 May 2011 (UTC)