• The software tests the source or destination address or the protocol of each packet being filtered against the conditions in the access list, one condition (permit or deny statement) at a time.
• If a packet does not match an access list statement, the packet is then tested against the next statement in the list.
• If a packet and an access list statement match, the rest of the statements in the list are skipped and the packet is permitted or denied as specified in the matched statement. The first entry that the packet matches determines whether the software permits or denies the packet. That is, after the first match, no subsequent entries are considered.
• If the access list denies the address or protocol, the software discards the packet and returns an ICMP Host Unreachable message.
• If no conditions match, the software drops the packet. This is because each access list ends with an unwritten or implicit deny statement. That is, if the packet has not been permitted by the time it was tested against each statement, it is denied.
• The access list must contain at least one permit statement or else all packets are denied.
• Because the software stops testing conditions after the first match, the order of the conditions is critical. The same permit or deny statements specified in a different order could result in a packet being passed under one circumstance and denied in another circumstance.
• If an access list is referenced by name in a command, but the access list does not exist, all packets pass.
• Only one access list per interface, per protocol, per direction is allowed.
• Inbound access lists process packets arriving at the device. Incoming packets are processed before being routed to an outbound interface. An inbound access list is efficient because it saves the overhead of routing lookups if the packet is to be discarded because it is denied by the filtering tests. If the packet is permitted by the tests, it is then processed for routing. For inbound lists, permit means continue to process the packet after receiving it on an inbound interface; deny means discard the packet.
• Outbound access lists process packets before they leave the device. Incoming packets are routed to the outbound interface and then processed through the outbound access list. For outbound lists, permit means send it to the output buffer; deny means discard the packet.

• Create the access list before applying it to an interface. An interface with an empty access list applied to it permits all traffic.
• Another reason to configure an access list before applying it is because if you applied a nonexistent access list to an interface and then proceed to configure the access list, the first statement is put into effect, and the implicit deny statement that follows could cause you immediate access problems.
• Because the software stops testing conditions after it encounters the first match (to either a permit or deny statement), you will reduce processing time and resources if you put the statements that packets are most likely to match at the beginning of the access list. Place more frequently occurring conditions before less frequent conditions.
• Organize your access list so that more specific references in a network or subnet appear before more general ones.
• In order to make the purpose of individual statements more easily understood at a glance, you can write a helpful remark before or after any statement.

Source and destination address fields in an IP packet are two typical fields on which to base an access list. Specify source addresses to control the packets being sent from certain networking devices or hosts. Specify destination addresses to control the packets being sent to certain networking devices or hosts.

When comparing the address bits in an access list entry to a packet being submitted to the access list, address filtering uses wildcard masking to determine whether to check or ignore the corresponding IP address bits. By carefully setting wildcard masks, an administrator can select one or more IP addresses for permit or deny tests.

Wildcard masking for IP address bits uses the number 1 and the number 0 to specify how the software treats the corresponding IP address bits. A wildcard mask is sometimes referred to as an inverted mask because a 1 and 0 mean the opposite of what they mean in a subnet (network) mask.

• A wildcard mask bit 0 means check the corresponding bit value.
• A wildcard mask bit 1 means ignore that corresponding bit value.

If you do not supply a wildcard mask with a source or destination address in an access list statement, the software assumes a default wildcard mask of 0.0.0.0.

Unlike subnet masks, which require contiguous bits indicating network and subnet to be ones, wildcard masks allow noncontiguous bits in the mask.

You can filter packets based on transport layer information, such as whether the packet is a TCP, UDP, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) or Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet.