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Reviving the Firewall Design Program?
rcha101 asks: "I'm not sure if many of you are aware but Robert L. Ziegler use to host (IMHO) the best online firewall configuration tool (formerly available here here, check out the link now for his sad synopsis) until recently when he decided to pull the plug on it. I have since been trying to contact him in an effort to get this tool back online and develop the IPFW2 side of it (correct some of the rules, add extra features to it etc) but have had no luck. Does anyone know how to contact him? Has anyone else been in a similar situation? What web tools do you use that could suddenly disappear overnight? Robert are you out there?"
I think the problem was with how some people treated him. DEMANDING he fix this, implement that, for what was obvious work related. And all without a thank you, when he was done.
Interesting, I get a different blurb. He must have changed it.
New text:
The iptables support is completed, but the software went into stasis.
During the iptables upgrade, I found myself building in a level of technical expertise and a fuller feature set that weren't functionally useful for a home user. The software became something much more than the toy I've always seen it as. At the same time, Linux is more evolved than it was when I started, and we're not in the same precarious situation with our ISPs as we once were.
It was extremely rare to get a thank you. It was fairly common to get demands for free technical service of a nature that a home user just wouldn't be asking for. I'd always hoped that I might get something out of the effort for myself and never did. It costs me money and resources to provide the service. I began to ask, why would "they" hire you if what you're giving away "they" see as "good enough" for their purposes.
About that time I looked up the Linux Router Project for some reason and saw that the project was closed. I read the letter the man left on his Web site, and realised that I felt the same way he did.
It seemed there were more reasons to stop than were reasons to continue. Simply getting a warm-fuzzy feeling about myself wasn't a good enough reason to continue anymore.