On Thursday 31 July 2003 08:11, Andre Volmensky wrote: > What are the advantages of a linux firewall over something like > Windows with WinRoute on it, or even a hardware based firewall. What > are the disadvantages etc. I know I am asking on a linux users > mailing list, but I would also like reply's not to be too bias.
I have no experience with neither Windows routers or hardware routers, but I have a great router running Linux from a floppy. It's an old box I was given, and it has a 133 MHz Pentium CPU. That's certainly overkill for my purpose, but that is what I got.... It would probably be appropriate for your purpose. I ripped the harddrive out, it boots from a floppy. The floppy is from the Coyote Linux project: http://www.coyotelinux.com/ but you could try floppyfw too http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/ I couldn't get it to work with my DSL provider, which is strange since I'm using the same provider as the author. Anyway, I figured it will be so extremely seldom I have to change anything in there, I disabled any access method beyond going to the box and pop the floppy out. No telnetd, no sshd. I figured, if there is some vulnerability in the firewall code, it is not even going to be a daemon listening on the inside, ready to give the attacker a shell. Also, the RAMDisk isn't big, and when there is no harddrive, even if the attacker gets into the firewall box, it's a complete wasteland when it comes to tools. Now, do _that_ on windows! :-) Cheers, Kjetil -- Kjetil Kjernsmo Astrophysicist/IT Consultant/Skeptic/Ski-orienteer/Orienteer/Mountaineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/ OpenPGP KeyID: 6A6A0BBC -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
