Re: iptables help

[Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>]

Michael Friedrichs <michael@friedrichs-northeim.de> writes:

> is that correct that you need a firewall for your debian-system?

No.  You don't /need/ a firewall if you don't run any network services,
for example, or if you disable anything that you don't trust the
security of.

If you don't know how to identify which network services are running, or
how to ensure they are secure, a firewall can help by preventing access
to them.

Also, if you want different rules for different parts of the IP network
that can talk to your machine, using a firewall allows you to do that.

Finally, if you run a client machine behind another firewall machine,
you probably don't need to bother specifically with a firewall.  


That said, using a firewall on every host is considered good security
practice and I do recommend it.

Regards,
        Daniel