Re: small linux firewall/router advice

From: Cam Haughton (camh@swiftbiz.ca)
Date: 12/27/01 

From: "Cam Haughton" <camh@swiftbiz.ca>
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 08:15:20 GMT

the 386 should work fine. although for dialup, i would recommend using
ipmasquerading, together with a sperate firewall. you can also reduce some
server load by getting rid of dhcp. on a 3 computer network, you really have
no need for dhcp. just set static ips and use those. ipmasq'ing will also
get rid of the need for web proxying (unless that is what you meant), as it
will provide support for all internet protocols. i myself run a linux
machine as my router (ipmasq) server. though i find with dialup, the need
for a firewall is not entirely necessary. i check my box constantly while on
the internet, and if for some small chance that an intruder is on the box,
well i just disconnect from the net. plain and simple. in my opinion, (and i
may catch some *** for saying it) unless you have a dedicated dialup
connection, dont lose too much sleep over the firewall issue. if you close
the majority of the ports on the linux machine that are not ever used, and
set up your user and ftp accounts correctly; for the time that you are on
the net, your machine should be relatively safe. these are my opinions
though, and i hope that some of them will help you.

D Edwards <edwardsdaj@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cfe208bf.0112261624.30cd3ada@posting.google.com...
> I have a modem dialup connexion and a small home network of 3 pc's.
> ATM I am using one linux box to provide all network services including
> dhcp, web proxy and NAT/firewall but it is also a file server and my
> work station. Whilst I think its fairly secure I'd like to seperate
> these services to a dedicated box. Problem is the pc I am hoping to
> use is a 386 with only 8mb ram. Would this perform ok? I like the
> look of smoothwall mainly because of the web admin interface and
> caching web proxy, but it looks like this is pushing it a bit.
> The lightweight floppy based firewalls I have read about (eg floppyfw)
> don't seem to support modem dialup or control/dial on demand.
>
> Another consideration is the modem I intend to use is isa and I need
> to use isapnp to initialise it. Any recommendations appreciated.
>
> TIA
>
> Dean Edwards