demilitarized zone

In the military, this is the boundary between two or more groups where military activity is not permitted, usually because of some treaty. In computer networks, the DMZ is a network or portion of the network separated from other systems by a firewall. The firewall lets only certain types of network traffic enter or exit. Many companies protect their internal networks from the Internet using a firewall but have a separate DMZ to which the public can have only limited access. For example, public Web servers might be located in the DMZ.

See Also: Firewall; Internet.