On Wed, May 21, 2003 at 03:21:37AM -0700, Joris Huizer wrote: > Hello, > > I've curently a firewall installed called > 'firestarter' - buut I'd like to hear what firewall > most of you use. I'm just on a personal computer - no > server or anything like that. In the Linux world, firewalling is something the kernel does. In 2.0 kernels, a system called ipfwadm was used, ipchains for 2.2 and iptables for 2.4 (and 2.5). All tools like firestarter do is provide an easier interface to the basic command line tool that configures the kernel system (iptables, ipchains, ipfwadm, oddly enough :). So, every firewalling tool on Linux could be as secure as each other. Of course, the rules they generate could produce security issues... > I want to be able to browse, ftp, mail (POP), (maybe > ssh) without a problem. This is a fairly simple problem, actually, especially with iptables. It can keep track of which packets are related to other ones, so you can say, f'r instance, 'let me send everything out, but block all incoming packets, except for those that are part of connections *I* established'. This works very well, and we quite secure. > Let's hear some opinions ! I started off using the basic three-line masquerading script on my gateway, then moved onto a modified one I wrote myself (the packet filtering HOWTO on http://www.netfilter.org/ is quite useful), then to MonMotha's rc.firewall, and now I'm just using shorewall. All these were rather easy to configure, and only involved editing some simple text files. If you're just starting out, then I'd recommend reading the HOWTO I mentioned above. It explains how it all works, and shows you how to make your own basic script. Even if you immediately jump back to some other tool, knowing how they work is a huge advantage when designing your own rules using any sort of helper. -- Rob Weir <rweir@ertius.org> | mlspam@ertius.org | http://www.ertius.org/ GPG keys: 1024D/1E73B7CD, 4096R/3ABDE5EC | Do I look like I want a CC? Words of the day: beanpole Ceridian Soviet Echelon emc STARLAN csystems
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