38. The computer accessible medium of claim 30 , wherein an action of a packet flow rule can specify one or more of the following: dropping a packet specified by the packet filter of the packet flow rule; gathering statistical information about a packet specified by the packet filter of the packet flow rule; controlling timer functions associated with a packet specified by the packet filter of the packet flow rule; modifying a packet specified by the packet filter of the packet flow rule; and passing the packet on.
30. A computer accessible medium, comprising program instructions configured to implement: receiving a plurality of packet flow rules from multiple network services, wherein each packet flow rule comprises a packet filter and an action list including one or more prioritized actions, wherein each network service has a priority, and wherein the packet flow rules from each network service comprise a priority expressed either by longest prefix, or ordered precedence; generating a unified rule set according to the received packet flow rules, wherein said generating comprises: identifying conflicts between rule pairs, wherein each rule pair includes a higher priority rule and a lower priority rule; and resolving the identified conflicts according to a priority relationship between the higher priority rule and the lower priority rule.