Gaming Device Firewall

1 . A gaming device comprising:

a network interface card operable to receive a plurality of gaming network communication packets from a gaming network;

a gaming device firewall coupled to the network interface card to receive the plurality of gaming network communication packets, and operable to apply a set of firewall rules to the plurality of gaming network communication packets and to drop some of the gaming network communication packets based on the set of firewall rules; and

a set of gaming device applications operable to receive at least some undropped ones of the gaming network communication packets from the gaming device firewall.

2 . (canceled)

3 . The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein the gaming device firewall can be disabled through a user interface.

4 . The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein the gaming device firewall can be disabled by entering a user authentication information through a user interface.

5 . The gaming device of claim 1 further comprising:

a set of Internet Protocol-aware peripheral devices, wherein the gaming device firewall is further operable to perform network address translation on certain of the plurality of gaming network communication packets.

6 . The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein the gaming device firewall can dynamically modify the firewall rules as a result of receiving input through a user interface.

7 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, in a gaming device, a gaming network communication packet from a gaming network at a network interface unit included in the gaming device;

performing firewall operations on the gaming network communication packet after receiving the gaming network communication packet at a firewall, the firewall operations including,

determining, based on firewall rules, whether the gaming network communication packet should be dropped; and

if the gaming network communication packet should be dropped, dropping the gaming system communication packet; and

if the gaming network communication packet should not be dropped, delivering the gaming system communication packet to a port of the gaming device.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the determining includes inspecting protocol layers of the gaming network communication packet.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim of claim 8 , wherein the protocol layers include Transmission Control Protocol Layer and an Internet Protocol layer.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the determining further includes:

inspecting one of a plurality of protocol layers of the gaming network communication packet; and

if there is not a firewall rule for one of the plurality of protocol layers, inspecting another of the protocol layers.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , further comprising dropping the gaming system communication packet for reasons other than the firewall rules.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the port of the gaming device is associated with an application for which the gaming system communication packet is destined.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the gaming device includes a secure network connection and an unsecured network connection.

14 . A machine-readable medium comprising instructions which when executed cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a gaming system communication packet from one of a plurality of network interfaces comprising network interface units of a gaming device;

determining a destination port for the gaming system communication packet;

determining, after the receiving, and based on ones of a set of firewall rules, whether the destination port is allowed to receive packets from the one of the plurality of network interfaces; and

if the destination port is allowed to receive packets from the one of a plurality of network interfaces, delivering the gaming system communication packet to the destination port.

15 . The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of network interfaces includes a first network interface unit associated with an unsecured network and a second network interface unit associated with a secure network.

16 . The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the determining whether the destination port is allowed to receive packets from the one of the plurality of network interfaces is based on whether the destination port is associated with a secure network or an unsecured network.

17 . The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the destination port is associated with a gaming device application selected from the group consisting of device configuration applications, software downloading applications, and wide-area progressive applications.

18 . The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , the operations further comprising:

if the port is not allowed to receive packets from the one of the plurality of network interfaces, dropping the gaming system communication packet.

19 . The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , the operations further comprising:

if the port is not allowed to receive packets from the one of the plurality of network interfaces,

requesting user authentication data;

receiving the user authentication data; and

delivering the gaming system communication packet to the destination port.

20 . The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the gaming system communication packet is a data packet or a control packet.