Firewall recommendation

[Liquid Snake]

My router works similar to the Linksys suggested by Dr Mordrid. Since the router is also a NAT box, that serves as a firewall as well.

[xortam]

I like the idea of using a HW firewall because you don't have to worry about OS compatibility as well as the reliability and performance issues. I'm behind a corporate firewall at home so I don't run one locally (no DSL gaming though ).

[Electric Amish]

Another vote here for BlackIce.

Seems to work better than ZA, IMO. I can play Asheron's Call through it w/o any problem. I couldn't get ZA to do that.

amish

[SteveC]

Another hardware firewall-er here

I have the netgear RT-311 and it's being my firewall, NAT-ing and DHCP-ing for me and my network

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Holerith]

I have AtGuard and ZoneAlarm and both have worked well. I found BlackICE better as an intrusion detector than a firewall.

I am currently using GnatBox Light on an old 486 as a firewall and it works well. The Light version is free for personal use up to 5 users.

Using an old 486/386/pentium with Linux/xBSD and ipchains/ipmasquarading is also a viable cost effective option.

On the subject of Norton trashing its ruleset, export the rules from the registry to a file, apply the patch/upgrade, and then import the rules file you just exported.

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PDP-11, Dec-writer & ZD-11 Terminal Unit, RSTS-OS

[This message has been edited by Holerith (edited 12 February 2001).]

[dZeus]

as being part of a 2000+ pc network, I can safely say that a standalone Linux box or hardware firewall is far away the best.

Of you really want to go with a software Windows firewall, I've heard that Conseal is a good firewall packet. I've heard a lot that others like Lockdown and BlackIce freak out on simple port-scans, making you believe it has defended you from a hack-attack, when in fact almost nothing has happened. A properly configured Conseal firewall will make prevent most malicious connections

[2Whyzzi]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by dZeus:
as being part of a 2000+ pc network, I can safely say that a standalone Linux box or hardware firewall is far away the best.
</font>

Hardware routers (Linksys/D-Link/Netgear) are problably your best bet. Also, if you have a some time and a spare 3/486 lying around that has a floppy drive, you might want to consider http://www.linuxrouter.org/. BUT, if that PC has, oh say 400+megs of hard drive space, I'd highly recommend http://www.openbsd.org.

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Abit BH6 r1.01
Celeron2-566 o/c to 850MHz+Slotket!!! 1.8v
256 Megs PC-133 Cas3
Matrox G400 SH OEM (not oc'd) rev=03h
Diamond Monster Sound MX400

[This message has been edited by 2Whyzzi (edited 13 February 2001).]

[Dr Mordrid]

Freh H,

I think the Linksys has more capabilities including the NAT function. Here's its page;

http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...prid=20&grid=5

The 1 port version only runs about $85-90 online with the 4 port running about $105. Prices have dropped since I got mine

As far as configuration goes mine was limited to setting up an administrative password, getting my routers MAC address and giving it to the cable ISP so they could set up my account on their end. I'm pretty much running defaults otherwise.

I've had this thing running 24/7 since about May and it hasn't missed a beat. No need for any maintenence of any kind except for firmware updates, and those can be done without resetting or powering down the router. It's pretty much fire and forget.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 13 February 2001).]

[Fred H]

Doc,
thanks.
I'll search a local supplier for this.
The price for the Linksys seems to be attractive, too.
And the 4-port solution also will let my wife to access the internet while I'm living here...
The first and most acute for me, just now is to get my (A)DSL, hopefully in may.

Fred H

[Colin Morey]

I personally used to use Zonalarm, it was easy to configure.
I've stopped using Grc, I just scan my home firewall from work.

I would recommend a hardware firewall, at the moment though, I have a p200 sitting there acting as Isdn dial-up/firewall/Nat/PDC, and I barely appear on the web, (all ports bar 2 are closed, and the ones that aren't are filtered.)


Colin