[NBLUG/talk] Firewall on a stick (diskette)

Tim Preston timp at sonic.net
Sat May 14 17:41:16 PDT 2005


Well. What a weekend ride. Three software packages, Two nights, One server!

Found three very interesting packages: Floppyfw, Freesco, and IPcop. I 
tend to like plug and play (not pray) and the first test was How fast to 
get up and running?

Freesco was by far the fastest to configure and run. Had to add the 
needed NIC module and off it went. Stable and fast (for a DSL).

Next was IPcop. Install to the hard drive, many extra features, up and 
running in under 30 minutes. No extra drivers. Rob was right, "Nice 
graphs." Definitely a bonus package.

However, Floppyfw did not have the easy install as the other two. Or, I 
missed something in the readmes ;) I played with it for about twenty 
minutes and decided I was week and unworthy of the linux prompt.

In the end, I solved the original problem by checking the firmware on 
the hardware router manufacturer's site. Lo' and behold! A new version. 
Which just happened to fix the problem!?

I never shy away from experience and I hope that by sharing it others 
will be able to laugh along.

Tim

Tim Preston wrote:

> Thanks for the info... now I need to test!
> 
> Hoping to find time this weekend to throw some time at it. If any of you 
> want to poke at it, let me know off-list. (It's not that I'm paranoid... 
> or anything) :| (I trust Windows! At work!)
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
> Walter Hansen wrote:
> 
>  > I use firestarter, but I'm probably moving to a hardware router, mostly
>  > for less wear and tear on the machine. I hear it whirr when I download
>  > things. It seems to work well.
>  >
> 
> Robert C Haas wrote:
> 
> I use FREESCO (stands for FREE ciSCO). It incorporates firewalling and 
> NAT. more info is at http://www.freesco.org
> 
> I have been using it for a year. I recycled an old IBM Box, and I just 
> use two NIC cards, a stick of RAM, and a floppy drive. Zero downtime. 
> And its a simple setup and configuration. You can administer it through 
> your web browser easily, too.
> 
> 
> Rob Orsini wrote:
> 
>> On May 3, 2005, at 6:48 PM, Tim Preston wrote:
>>
>>> Most of you have probably done this before, or at least wanted to 
>>> try. So, what can you recommend? What have you tried (recently)? What 
>>> has last the test of time (past)?
>>
>>
>>
>> I've used IPCop in the past. It's been around for years now. If your a 
>> sucker for pretty network traffic graphs, it might be worth looking 
>> into. :)
>>
>> http://www.ipcop.org/
>>
>> rob
>>
>>
> 
> 



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