Security Question

[Mark Wagnon <mwagnon1@home.com>]

Hi all:

I'm looking at Firewall and Security listing on Freshmeat, but I
have no idea what I should consider installing to tighten up my box.
My immediate goal is to not allow anything into or out of my home
network, unless it happens to be for email/news, ftp to other sites,
and Internet browsing. 

I've been lurking in a few lists, and I keep reading about port
scans, so I'd like to learn more about them, and how to detect/log
them, etc.

The only thing I recognize is tripwire, and that from reading it in
few posts, but it appears to be available only in rpm format, and as
source only.

Also, IIRC, I should compile security related software on my machine
since one isn't to trust a binary from an external source. Is this
correct?

I'm off to read the Security HOWTO

'nite!
-- 
                 (                       __   _
Mark Wagnon       )     Debian GNU/ -o) / /  (_)__  __ ____  __
Chula Vista, CA  (                  /\\/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /
mwagnon1@home.com ) www.debian.org _\_v____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\