Build yourself a home firewall
 
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Users looking to build a cheap, small firewall for a remote worker or even a small branch office should at least check open source options before purchasing a store-bought, small office/home office firewall product.
One such open source firewall product is SmoothWall. The " mini " Linux distribution is basically a stripped-down version of the VA Linux operating system (which is actually a beefed-up version of Red Hat) that has been cut to fit on a floppy disk. The code runs on any old Intel 486-or-higher box you may have laying around.
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SmoothWall is intended to sit between a user's dial-up modem and PC, or between a dial-up line and several PCs connected via a hub or switch. The next version, developers say, will support cable and DSL modems, with an ISDN version currently in a useable, beta version.
Users program their ISP's dial-up accounts into SmoothWall, and then access the Internet through the firewall. SmoothWall can support up to five dial-up account numbers. The firewall is compatible with Windows, Linux and Macintosh clients. Users access the device with a Web browser and click a button to make a modem call to an ISP account.
The software includes Apache Web server, which allows a user to access the device to be configured through a Web browser. This is where settings such as dial-up account numbers, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol , FTP- and telnet-enabling settings can be configured.
Next week: Linux tools for building and managing firewalls on large networks
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Phil Hochmuth is a Network World Senior Writer and a former systems integrator. You can reach him at phochmut@nww.com.
Linux in the Enterprise archive
Past newsletters.
Check out an alternative version of SmoothWall, based on the Tiny Linux distribution
Check out a Web site devoted to Linux firewalls
Microsoft gets tough with independent testers
Network World, 03/12/01
