Re: firewall: linux vs. freebsd
* timothy bauscher (q@foce.eiomail.com) spake thusly:
> I am planning on building a firewall
> here. There is a lot of hype about
> Freebsd being great for firewalls,
> and books regarding Linux firewalls.
>
> I love Linux, but I believe in
> finding the best solution for a
> problem. My question is not which OS
> is better for a firewall, but which
> one you would use (or do use).
The OS you know best -- it's the one you're less likely to
misconfigure.
If I were building a firewall, I would try Linux first 'cause
I know it best. I would not use Debian, or any general-purpose
distro -- I'd take a look at existing firewall/router projects
and if I didn't like any of them, I'd go for LFS. I would also
run a few stress tests on it before going live -- I'm not
entirely convinced in stability and performance of 2.4 kernels
(and 2.2 doesn't have stateful packet filter, so I wouldn't use
it).
We have an old-ish FreeBSD firewall, set up before my time. In
~2 years I worked here it's been rebooted twice -- once when we
moved it out of wiring closet, and once when I accidentally
pressed C-A-D on the wrong keyboard (to give you an idea about
FreeBSD's stability).
Dima
--
Surely there is a polite way to say FOAD. -- Shmuel Metz
"Go forth and multiply". -- Paul Martin
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