SUMMARY: Firewall Distro

OK I got quite a few responses...

Thanks to Darrell, Michael, Martin, Sam, Tino, Joakim, Richard, Seth, Bob,
Bob, Ben, George.

A number of people correctly pointed out I probably shouldn't be running a
server and firewall on the same machine. The most secure option is to run a
separate firewall and then run the server beind it. I was aware of the lower
security and I am comfortable with my decision to run them on the same piece
of hardware as I have for the past 4 odd years. Thanks for the heads up
though.

So specialist firewalls suggested include:
Smoothwall (www.smoothwall.org)
m0n0wall (http://neon1.net/m0n0wall/)
IPcop (www.ipcop.org)
Mandrake MNF (http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/mnf) I mentioned I
already tried MNF and was not impressed with the web interface. Plus it was
quite a hassle just to get a manually initiated dialup running and working
correctly (unlike smoothwall)

All in one solutions include:
Mitel E-Smith SME (www.e-smith.org)
ClarkConnect (www.clarkconnect.org)

Solutions suggested for server (i.e. no firewall functions but behind a
specialist firewall) only type apps
Engarde (www.engardelinux.org)
E-Smith (www.e-smith.org)

A couple of people also suggest regular distros like BSD, RH7.3 and Debian
since they are relatively up to date. They fail to offer a complete web
configuration interfaces that specialist distros include. They also require
a lot of extra config and compiling after install. This is basically what I
did with my current RH6.2 server.

Another sort of option is Webmin www.webmin.com which provides a web-based
gui for setting up a varied number of Unix/Linux boxes like Debian, Redhat,
BSD, Solaris etc. I have used webmin extensively on my current box and I
really like it. Webadmin was suggested but I think he meant webmin.

I am currently evaluating ClarkConnect and although it looks very good, it
might just be a little limited for what I want. However since it's based on
RH7.3, theoretically most RH7.3 rpms will simply install if I want the extra
functionality. Next I will try Mitel's SME server. If that fails I think I
will go back to RH7.3 and do it manually.

Also this book was suggested for recommended reading on firewalls
http://www.bookpool.com/.x/p93pz7zpp0/sm/020163466X

Thanks
Christian

> -----Original Message-----
> From: linuxmanagers-bounces-35TzE1X9F6582KRnZfj+bdi2O/[email protected]
> [mailto:linuxmanagers-bounces-35TzE1X9F6582KRnZfj+bdi2O/[email protected]]On Behalf Of Christian
> Hack
> Sent: Monday, 28 April 2003 12:05 PM
> To: Linuxmanagers
> Subject: Firewall Distro
>
>
> Hi guys,
>
> I'm looking for a distro with firewalling and server type capabilities.
>
> Currently I have a heavily modified and customized Redhat 6.2 box
> which has
> served me quite well for over 3 years now. However it lacks some features
> and I seem to be unable to upgrade to a 2.4 kernel for iptables
> etc amongst
> other things.
>
> What I would like is something that can be setup through a web interface
> including things like port forwarding etc.
>
> Currently the box does the following functions:
>
> Firewall (ipchains and kernel 2.2.20)
> DNS (Bind)
> Mail (SMTP and POP server)
> Very light webserving (someone wants a big file etc)
> very light FTP (ditto)
> DHCP (for the internal network)
> Webmail (via Webmin)
> Port Forwarding (big customized TrinityOS script)
> Traffic Shaping (once we reach our bandwidth limit)
> DMZ (very very kludged to get Netmeeting to work but a lot of other stuff
> doesn't)
> No X server
>
> Any suggestions? First option is to simply take RH9 and customize
> it to the
> level of the current box. However I have used RH9 and I don't like the way
> that Redhat customize things which then breaks programs (memory
> page mapping
> has changed to be like the 2.5 kernel).
>
> Smoothwall is quite nice but doesn't provide the server type
> (mail, ftp, dns
> etc) features I want
> Mandrake Multi Network Firewall I thought was crap and I really
> didn't like
> their web interface.
>
> I'd like to keep the firewall and server parts on the same box
> too, just to
> keep the hardware simple as much as anything. Standard distros
> won't really
> have the web interface part and from what I have seen firewall
> type distros
> don't allow for mail, DNS etc.
>
> I don't mind paying to some extent, but I am looking for something that is
> relatively free.
>
> Thanks
>
> Christian Hack
> R&D ENGINEER
> christianh-EwM+tGBLom00n/[email protected]
> EDMI Product Development Division
> Ph : +61 7 3881 6444
> FAX : +61 7 3881 6420
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