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SmoothWall 2.0 Linux-Based Firewall Released
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."
I've been using the 2.0 Beta at home without any problems. It's makes a great firewall for old boxes and has support for Proxies, DynDNS and everything else you expect in a good firewall. All configured easily from a web based interface. Works great for protecting those Windows boxes too. Think Windows cowering behind a big Tux. Kudos smoothwall team.
Forgive me if this is an obvious question, but why run a dedicated "firewall operating system" when hardware and software firewalls are available?
I used to use smoothwall, but switched to the forked project IPCop. Some of the original developers forked away from smoothwall because of the founder's desire to mix open source with a business model that conflicted with the project. I was having problems with smoothwall and updates, which prompted me to switch to IPCop. I've been happy ever since.
Anyone else got opinions on Smoothwall vs. IPCop?
Ruby on Rails Screencast
Using an old Pentium with two NICs for this is great, but the $699 licensing fee is a bit steep. Better stick to OpenBSD..
Trolling is a art,
I've been using version 1.0 of their firewall for just over a year now, and I have to admit that it is a rather good firewall. I was able to load it on a p100 box with only a 540MB hard drive. Granted with a hard drive that small, my firewall doesn't do alot as far as web cache is concerned, but otherwise it operates great. The patches are easy enough to install, all you have to do is download the gzip from the patches page built into the firewall web client. Upload the gzip's and they're installed.
Managing the firewall is exceptionally easy as well. You can setup port forwarding to internal computers in under 30 seconds. All-in all the firewall takes the major annoyances out of running a firewall. I highly recommend it for anyone who's got an old system lying around, and doesn't have the time to bother with setting up a firewall.
If you're looking here for something insightful or thought provoking, you're probably looking in the wrong place.
ipCop is a fork of the smoothwall source that has more of an open source community behind it. Personally, I found the whole "Buy Smoothwall Now!" experience just a little too annoying to use.
But, let me be the first to say that I love the concept behind this type of distro. A boot-cd and 20 minutes turns any old wintel machine into a damn god firewall appliance (one that has a shell!).
I couldn't agree more. With XP's firewall, I'm able to completely lose all access to the internet. I never have to worry about getting infected with virii, because they have no chance of being downloaded on my bulletproof machine.
I wonder when the rest of the OSs of the world will realize that XPs new focus on security first is the way to go.
Is there a -2, Obviously Retarded?
Hey freaks: now you're ju
This thing is great. It is preventing my unauthorized slashotting attempt.
/.'ed
:)
:)
:)
SmoothWall Express 2.0
SmoothWall Express 2.0 was released at 21:00 GMT on Monday 8th December 2002.
http://www.smoothwall.org/
** Please see http://smoothwall.org/ for the latest release
** information, downloads and updates!
SmoothWall Express 2.0 Release Notes
** Please note that the https web access port has moved from
** TCP/445 to TCP/441! Use https://x.x.x.x:441/ from now on!
Changes from SmoothWall GPL 1.0:
* SmoothWall GPL is now SmoothWall Express!
http://community.smoothwall.org/topic/1086
* Stateful packet inspection using Linux 2.4 kernel with iptables
and netfilter.
* Improved installer:
- Network card skip.
- Displays MAC address of detected cards.
- Prefilled IP addresses.
- Configure upstream web proxy for fetching update list.
when a direct connection cannot be made or is not allowed.
* Improved web user interface; more user friendly, better error
reporting, more orange
* Improved connectivity device support:
- More USB ADSL modems; ECI chipset, USR SureConnect.
http://smoothwall.org/beta/eci.html
- BeWAN PCI ADSL.
- BT Home Highway USB TA.
* Universal Plug-n-Play support for Microsoft Windows XP users.
* Improved network usage graphs with RRDtool.
* Improved proxy performance through diskd and other squid tweaks.
* Static assignments in DHCP server options based on MAC address.
* SmoothWall time sync with internal or external NTP server. Can
sync from a built-in list of servers. (Does not provide ntpd
service to Green or Orange network however)
* Configuration backup to floppy disk for quick install on another
machine, or re-install on same machine (compatible with backup
floppies from Express 2.0 RC1, timesync server list bug when
using backup floppy from Express 2.0 beta7 "pendolino" - see
http://community.smoothwall.org/topic/2180 for more info)
* Simpler port forwarding; no need to open ports with external
access page, the port (or ports - port ranges are allowed now)
is opened and forwarded on one page.
* IP Blocking feature; block any given internal IP address or
subnet from accessing your SmoothWall or any port forwarded
hosts. Additionally, blocking rules can be added from the
firewall log interface.
* Advanced networking features; block ICMP ping, block multicast
traffic and enable SYN cookies.
* Improved VPN; no need for "next hop" setting, optionally enable
compression on the tunnel, still possible to connect to a
SmoothWall GPL 1.0 VPN.
* Perform network diagnostic (ping, traceroute) from web interface.
* New Java SSH client (replaced due to licence conflict).
* Added clear cache option to web proxy.
* Updates list location changed
http://updates.smoothwall.org/express/2.0
Thanks to those on the team and the forums for their hard work on
mods and patches
-----
Rebooting
-----
During the reboot, notice the nice boot screens.
You will notice differences if you use either the ECI or the USR
SureConnect USB ADSL modems.
For all USR ADSL modems, have the unit plugged in prior to booting.
If you are using an ECI-chipset driver (generic of FDX310), you will
see your screen fill with diagnostics as the firmware is uploaded and
the line synced. Occasionally this can appear to hang part way
through, but it should not stall for more then 30 seconds at a time.
The line should be synced when this process is complete.
The USR SureConnect will behave in a similar fashion, but with less
diagnostics.
---
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
Congratulations to all those who made Smoothwall's latest release possible.
:)
Based on personal experience, I highly recommend that anyone planning to use, donate to or purchase support for the Smoothwall product first research the company and primary members of the development team, such as founder Richard Morrell, before making a committment. Of course, that's a good idea under any circumstances, with any software product.
Personally, I use the Mitel SME Server distribution (formerly e-smith) for my needs, but the feature set is somewhat different and it may not be a good fit for you. The community of users supporting users, however, is a great assett to the SME server project.
Anyway, I didn't get the job with them, although I did find another *nix job much to my relief. I wouldn't use this myself though - 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 :-)
It's a really nice product now.
Once upon a time I wouldn't go near it - one of the original founders was a real rude little shite and a huge liability to the project. And when I say rude, I mean rude - he used to tell potential or even existing customers to fuck off on a fairly regular basis, and that was when he was being polite!
Only his small circle of friends stayed on the IRC support channel - anyone else got kick-banned without even saying a word (either party).
Basically he used the wrong license, as in the end he seemed to detest the GPL and the "freeloaders" that were "stealing" copies of "his" work (perhaps he was the inspiration for SCO, huh?)
Thankfully he fucked off. It a nice project now, supported by nice people! Give it a try.
And I highly recommended it for many moons.
Unfortunately, the developers really annoyed me. One time, they released a patch that added a splash screen to the web interface that popped up EVERY time you changed page. And set chattr+i on the file on the server, then deleted the {ls,ch}attr commands on the server.
Which was just offensive. I went into their [community] IRC channel and mentioned how to fix it, and was kickbanned.
They make a big thing about being GPL and community-friendly, but in practice I just find them offensive.
I cannot highly enough recommend that people don't use this, and use ipcop instead.
Gary (-;
A rather newbie sounding question but can anyone explain solid reasons to use this instead of the standard linksys firewall that comes with the router? Note that I'm talking about a home user with less critical requirements than a business.
I know you can run YellowDogLinux on the PPC
o ns/yd l_general/ethernet_connections.shtml
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/
And do routing with it:
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/soluti
Not sure if there is a stripped down firewall distro for it yet. If you're up for it you might see what you could put together.
There is also MandrakeSoft's Multi Network Firewall which is a very nice firewall + network infrastructure management software that provides many features, including a multi-VPN support. And it's very easy to use.
Freedom isn't free; its price is the well-being of others.
- No moving parts. Preferably not even a fan.
- Flash memory for filesystem.
- Multiple 10/100 ports, preferably independently controllable so you can set up a DMZ, or different rules for different machines.
Does such a beast exist, in a relatively user-friendly form and without being more expensive than the old desktop that would otherwise be used?
Soekris. Check out their net4801. Whack OpenBSD on that and you are pretty much done.
Serve Gonk.
http://www.soekris.com/?
The LEAF distribution of Linux (leaf.sourceforge.net has performed excellently over the years. Various sub-distributions have tackled different things, and I've happily been using Bering at my company for years now. Smoothwall and Bering sound similar: Bering offers a 2.4 kernel, one floppy default running size, easy setup, good documentation, an active and helpful mailing list, and Shorewall for those of who don't want to muck around with iptables scripts. (I'm guilty of using iptables by itself for some time. Shorewall's thorough implementation is sobering to this do-it-yourself-er).
Like, give me an example?
Checkpoint? That runs on Linux/ Solaris / NT or whatever....
Checkpoint Nokia appliance? Just a rack-mount computer, running one of the above operating systems... they are not a "hardware" firewall.
Every firewall I"ve seen is just a fancy PC dressed up to look like some kind of hardware box.
Not sure what you mean by "your computer still has to do all the blcoking".. a firewall IS a computer that does blocking, by definition.
Smoothwall is not some add-on to your existing box.. it's for buildling hardware firewalls....
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.
PlanetMirror's got this now:
HTTP | FTP.
For hardware I would recommend a VIA C3 mini-atx system (no fan necessary for the slower processors), use aliases on your network adapter, and connect it to a cheap switch; or an underclocked Pentium with a monster passive heatsink and filled with cheap NIC's.
For software run Debian Stable, and use WebMin to administer your firewall (and system). Set up a cron job to "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade" every day. The system will run like an appliance. Stable, reliable, secure. You might have to reboot the thing for a kernel security update once in a blue moon.
WebMin's web interface makes firewall configuration extremely easy (as well as configuration of your entire system). You will only need a monitor to do the initial install of Debian. After that...go headless.
Personally, I've used Astaro Security Linux for a long time since moving from Smoothwall, and I find it far superior.
It's of course free for home use, runs on anything down to a P100, and all the up2date is handled by Astaro themselves.
Hell, they even have FREE evaluation webinar-live-workshops for people to get acquainted with Astaro if they are new (and presumeably to help with a purchasing decision for business) You can signup for the Eval Workshop for free here.
When they release their version 5, I hope it gets the same kind of publicity, they are hands down the coolest internet firewall and don't seem to get much press.
3-Server OC-3 Linux Counter-Strike Cluster
www.rnp.ca
I've been using Smoothwall 2.0 beta X for over a year now and I've had very few problems.
/., your ads too)..
/home/httpd/zaps and edited the wrapzap file to tell adzapper to look on smoothwall ofr it's images rather than using the resources of sourceforge. I found that the black and yellow gif was more annoying than the ads it was blocking.
;-/
The most recent I'm using is Pendolino and it's great.
I have installed several customer sites with Beta5 (after extensive testing at my site) and they are all very pleased with it.
I highly recomend it. You can take an old PC and load it up and really be covered.
It's very easy to use, very reliable, very flexible.
What's even better is that you can use the built in,
transparent proxy (squid) to block ads. (sorry
I made a dull gray "this ad zapped" gif and put it in
Man, it's great. EVERY machine that I plug into my lan automatically gets it's ads zapped. Friends and customers are freaked out and impressed with that. Then after seeing how cool it is they want a smoothwall too. Problem is I end up setting them all up for free..
Smoothwall is very cool, get it....
I think these are Awesome for small businesses and technically advanced home users but really not too great for the average home user. I think they will be better served with something like a low end SMC router. It's cheaper,smaller, costs less to run, and even compared to the easiest of these distros tends to be easier to setup. Usually you just plug it in and go. No need to open up a PC to install extra NICS and no need to worry about a powersupply going. I used to run a PC for a firewall, but really with the features you get on these cheap routers I'm more than happy. Hell the low end SMC7004VBR has an SPI firewall, VPN, Virtual Servers, and Access Control. All for under $40! You may have more fine grained control on something like Smoothwall, but for who don't need it it's really no contest on which product is a better fit.
I guess most of what I said is common sense, and I'm sure those in the market for a PC based firewall have thought about it as well. I just thought I'd post in case you needed to be pushed one way or another.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
At work we have a Sonicwall SOHO 2 on a Windows network. It was in place before I got there. We "need" to keep it because we have a client that theoretically wants to come in and look at data on one server. They have yet to ever do this, and it isn't clear if it would even work (the VPN should work since it was tested when it was made, but the server's data is supposedly questionable from something one of the accountants told me).
The Sonicwall SOHO 2 serves its purpose in that it keeps out the worms and I can block/open ports.
But where it is truly awful is the detail of its logs. It will tell me the top IPs that got the most traffic - but it includes IPs that are outside of our network, and inside of our network. It will tell me the web URLs that get the most hits. And it tells me which protocols transmit the most data and how much that is.
But while that is nice in theory, it is largely useless.
I want to know what pages and what protocols specific inside IPs are doing. I want to know which inside computer is connecting to what outside computers over what protocols.
Also, if I block a protocol/port, it will still log all of the attempts towards it exactly the same as if it were being allowed in. It doesn't say that 1000 hits were attempted on it but didn't get in - it just says that there were N megs of data against it (apparently not through it).
I don't care about logging what they do - I'm pretty laid back about all of that. If they are doing naughty things, that is their deal (my superiors have yet to tell me otherwise).
But I do very much care if people have spyware or viruses on their systems - and a firewall is a great way to track down who has those issues. I can do it with what we have now, but it could be far easier.
I looked into Smoothwall and thought that it looked good - and it is free. Even then, I don't know if I can get money even to get a lowly machine to run as the firewall.
It isn't clear on their site how detailed the logs go.
And it isn't clear if I can mimic the same VPN processes that are in place now, with the Smoothwall system.
I would love to hear feedback about the software. That way I can make a more informed decision as to what to do about the overpriced SOHO (in order to use features on it, you continually have to pay to have them turned on, such as VPN or virus checking).
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
I've been running a Soekris net4801 for a few weeks as a firewall. I'm very happy with it. It's not intended specifically as a firewall, you just buy the basic computer from Soekris and then install what you want. Getting it going can be quite involved, as it has no VGA circuitry; you have to administer everything over a serial cable. This is almost exactly the opposite target market from Smoothwall; the Soekris products are meant for people who know that the heck they're doing.
The 4801 I bought is a Pentium/266 with 128 megs of RAM, 3 network ports, a mini-IDE port (used for 2.5" hard drives [notebook style]), a compact flash port, a mini-PCI slot, and a 3.3v (only) regular PCI slot. This chipset has several known bugs, including a bad data-corruption bug with DMA mode hard drives that has not yet been worked around in Linux, to my knowledge. It's better to use it with a CF card (which can't do DMA) because of this, at least until they get that bug fixed. You can find some patches for the kernel via links off the main Soekris page, but I don't think there are any patches yet for the HD bug.
After about a week of futzing around with it, I finally got it running. Much of the pain was learning how PXE booting works. At this point, I have a Debian firewall with one external and two internal ports, and a 256MB internal "hard drive" (compact flash card). Everything is set up to log to RAM (instead of writing to the CF card, which is bad). The neatest part is that the machine is about the size of a trade paperback (it would be even smaller if they hadn't left room for a PCI card in the case), is absolutely silent, takes about ten watts of power, and has NO moving parts, so flinging it about isn't a problem. The chip is passively cooled, and doesn't even need a heat sink; the case gets mildly warm but never really gets hot. One of the neater gadgets I've played with recently.
Total net cost, including the CF card, was about $375, so it's not for the poor, and it's definitely not for the Smoothwall crowd. But if you're looking for a very sweet solution to the space-and-noise problem with a good, Linux-based firewall, this is a great solution.
As an aside, OpenBSD has patches to run with the net4801. I was having trouble getting OpenBSD's boot program to read the CF properly, and then suddenly ran short on time because my old P133 firewall started losing its hard drive. Pressed for time, I gave up on OpenBSD and installed Linux.... but, at least in theory, it should run well. OpenBSD also has support for hardware crypto accelerators, which you'll need if you want to do VPN with a box this slow. (that's one good use for the expansion slots.) I only saw one Linux hardware crypto driver, and it looked unfinished and primitive. Definitely a spot where OpenBSD looks to be ahead.
Nice little box. I'm very fond of mine.
Its bad naming aside, ( but who could have predcited the SCO mess several years ago ) its a rather powerful Firewall/router solution that fits ( and runs if you like ) on a SINGLE floppy.
its worth checking out.. www.freesco.org
---- Booth was a patriot ----
One of the Smoothwall guys just apologized to you (even though he has no way of verifying your "I was mistreated" story) in a public forum, admitted they were wrong, and did it in front of several hundred thousand slashdotters (something he didn't have to do, BTW)... and you won't even consider the software? Ever?
Projects evolve, abrasive people are often forced out over time. Seems to me you are missing out on a potentially useful tool, based on a past beef with some guys who are no longer there...
I'm not saying you don't have the right to feel they way you do... it just doesn't seem very pragmatic.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Buying a "hardware firewall" (cheaper ones are just an NAT box) is easy, but teaches you nothing.
Honestly... there is no substitute for building your own stuff, particularly if you want to increase your understanding of networking and security. If you don't have time for that kind of thing, or just don't want the hassle (you say hassle, I say "learning experience") of rolling your own, then buy the Linksys/Dlink/Netgear box and be done with it.
You will get far more options and much better control with the one you build yourself... but it doesn't come for free; it takes effort on your part. Seriously... build your own, then set up an ethernet tap with Snort to see what's coming and going on your network. The latter step with Snort personally taught me more about networking, protocols, and packets than any Man-page or article.
Build it... you'll be amazed at what it does for your networking/security skills.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.