Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SmoothWall 2.0 Linux-Based Firewall Released

Posted by simoniker on from the so-smooth-it's-criminal dept.

thegraham writes "Despite some earlier server problems, SmoothWall 2.0 has been released this evening - there are also release notes available. SmoothWall is 'a firewall operating system distribution based on Linux, enabling a low-end, possibly otherwise redundant, Intel and compatible PC to become a hardened Internet firewall', and changes from version 1 include: 2.4 kernel, new web interface, improved networking and many bugs corrected through the Beta program."

4 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OS? by pe1chl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hardware firewall?
    You probably mean a box with a microcontroller running a dedicated firewall operating system.

  2. Re:OS? by tacocat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because software solutions are too late. The culprit is already at your machine

    And hardware solutions have two problems that I've personally seen happen.

    1. If they are found to have a security flaw in them, the company will not make the effort to reveal to the community the need for a security upgrade in every case.
    2. I can install smoothwall/ip-cop for free on a machine I can pick up for free. It comes with the capability of supporting a DMZ/LAN configuration (3 NICs). This costs big $$$ in hardware

    There are very distinct advantages to this approach. BTW they also have squid, which hardware devices can't provide.

  3. Re:Developer issues/fork by jazman_777 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    So really, if you want to use Smoothwall, better read hard or get a thicker skin somewhere. Perhaps that's good advice for the rest of us anyway.

    But Morell was in a league of his own. Most rude types are simply rude. Morell was the strutting peacock of rudeness amongst a rabble of sparrows and starlings.

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  4. Re:I had a job interview with these people by Daemonik · · Score: 4, Insightful
    IMO an experienced admin should take a minimal install of his favorite generic Linux/BSD distro, and build from there. Smoothwall is good for the less experienced though, who need an out of the box solution right now, not after 6 months googleing :-)
    No, a junior admin should take the time to build a firewall from scratch.

    An experienced admin is much too busy playing Nethack and downloading pr0n from his bosses logins while running a couple of Quake servers off the company T1 to devote that kind of time to a project.