Re: security concerns for home work network

["Russell L. Harris" <rlharris@oplink.net>]

* ChadDavis <chadmichaeldavis@gmail.com> [080207 21:42]:
> 
>     You could place an old machine on the "dmz" port of your
>     firewall/router (you DO have a firewall, don't you?), and copy client
>     software to that machine, for access by your clients.
> 
> I don't have a firewall software, but i have the DSL router and
> nothing comes through unless i port forward.  I think that is just
> NAT, right?  That works as a firewall, does it not?

Some firewall/routers have a "dmz" ("demilitarized zone"), which
enables a single firewall/router (and thus, a single Internet
connection) to serve both a private LAN and a public server; others do
not.

One of the easiest and most economical ways to experiment with a DMZ
is to place three ethernet cards and a small drive (10 gigabytes is
sufficient) in an old Pentium or Pentium-II machine (200 to 400 MHz is
adequate), and then install IPCop or SmoothWall (www.smoothwall.org).
If you are running dial-up, you need only two ethernet cards.

I am familiar with SmoothWall, having used it for a number of years,
and I think that it is the more polished and user-friendly of the two
packages -- even a novice can install and configure SmoothWall.  

RLH