OLD PC to Firewall/Router Linux Distros

Q

Quad Master

Guide
Hi Guys

Have a old P3 450 with 256MB Ram lying in my house

So decided to look for some firewall router project to put it to some use.

These are the few Linux Distros that will help u setup a Linux based Router / Firewall.

1.> SmoothWall Express

SmoothWall Express is an open source firewall distribution based on the GNU/Linux operating system. Linux is the ideal choice for security systems; it is well proven, secure, highly configurable and freely††† available as open source code. SmoothWall includes a hardened subset of the GNU/Linux operating system, so there is no separate OS to install. Designed for ease of use, SmoothWall is configured via a web-based GUI, and requires absolutely no knowledge of Linux to install or use.

Link:- Welcome! - SmoothWall

Guide:- SmallNetBuilder - SmoothWall Express 2.0

2.> IP Cop

* Provide a stable Linux Firewall Distribution.

* Provide a secure Linux Firewall Distribution.

* Provide an opensourced Linux Firewall Distribution.

* Provide a highly configurable Linux Firewall Distribution.

* Provide an easily maintained Linux Firewall Distribution.

* Provide an easily configured Linux Firewall Distribution.

* Provide reliable Support to the IPCop Linux user base.

* Provide an enjoyable environment for the Public to discuss and request assistance.

* Provide stable, secure, and easy to implement upgrades/patches for IPCop Linux.

* Develop an appreciation for both the Linux and Opensource movements in our user base.

* Develop a long lasting relationship with our userbase.

* Strive to adapt IPCop to meet the needs of the Internet of Tomorrow.

* Further develop the Linux Knowledge base of all Project Members and Users.

Link:- IPCop.org :: The bad packets stop here!

Guide:- SmallNetBuilder - IPCop Linux Firewall

3.> RedWall

redWall is a bootable CD-ROM Firewall. It's goal is to provide a feature rich firewall solution, with the main goal, to provide a webinterface for all the logfiles generated!

Main features:

* Configuration is currenty stored on a floppy/USB Memory Stick/Harddrive or sent by email

* Due the fact, that most reporting functionality is done via mysql (except for the squid reports), it's possible to use the cd as a Mangagement/Logging Console for other firewalls running in your environment using the same cd! Take snort for instance.. you can have 10 firewalls :) running snort, reporting back to the main database on the management/Logging system, in order to have a central "overview" of all your firewalls... Using the SAME CD !! It's all up to you how you configure your firewall and/or Management box !

* based on gentoo

* bridging support

* Mail Virusscanning, spamfiltering and gateway functionality

* /etc is writable (tmpfs) feeded by the configuration medium

* /var is writable (ramdisk or harddisk) (you are not going to run squid on a ramdisk... aren't you ?)

* The cd will (at least it should) detect all your network cards during the initial boot



Link:- redWall Firewall

4.> m0n0wall

m0n0wall is a project aimed at creating a complete, embedded firewall software package that, when used together with an embedded PC, provides all the important features of commercial firewall boxes (including ease of use) at a fraction of the price (free software).

m0n0wall is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web server, PHP and a few other utilities. The entire system configuration is stored in one single XML text file to keep things transparent.

m0n0wall is probably the first UNIX system that has its boot-time configuration done with PHP, rather than the usual shell scripts, and that has the entire system configuration stored in XML format.

Link:- m0n0wall

Guide:- SmallNetBuilder - m0n0wall Firewall V1.0 - Part 1

5.> ClarkConnect

ClarkConnect is a powerful and affordable Internet server and gateway solution. The software solution will give your organization enterprise-level server features at an affordable price.

Link:- ClarkConnect - Server and Gateway - Linux Small Business Server SBS

Guide:- SmallNetBuilder - ClarkConnect Gateway / Server

Misc

- Old PC To New Router With Gentoo Linux - CyberKnowledge Blog
 
Redhat is nice...so is freebsd..

@ Quad Even a P 1 or PII can make up a pretty decent firewall machine. U can even run ur Webserver on the P III . It can more than handle that load...

@ferrar... How do u go about ??

I mean which version of RedHat ?? If u use old version then u update the kernel ??

For firewall u use IPTables ?? Also is there some webbased tool use use to remotely moniter and configure the firewall or leave ssh open to the internal network ??

Also for logging what do u use ?? Syslog it to internal network machine or store it on the firewall machine itself ??
 
Josh said:
@ferrar... How do u go about ??

I mean which version of RedHat ?? If u use old version then u update the kernel ??

For firewall u use IPTables ?? Also is there some webbased tool use use to remotely moniter and configure the firewall or leave ssh open to the internal network ??

Also for logging what do u use ?? Syslog it to internal network machine or store it on the firewall machine itself ??
Click to expand...

well we have all our production servers runing on Redhat EL 4.0. On the gateways i have Redhat fedora core 5 running with uptodate kernel and important packages. Firewall i use iptables. I don't use any web based tool ..gui is best for windows for nix the command line and text mode is the best...yes i keep ssh open on internal network but it's not the default port 22 some random port and I filter access to this port by mac address of admin machines..i also use arpwatch....for external i use VPN..i wudn't like to reveal too much info on how i secure n monitor my network..hope u don't mind ;)

Remember never promote Linux for client machines in ur organization..It's a hackers and networking OS and for the elite and servers...Always use Microsoft Windows as the Domain controller and clients.

And i use Ubuntu on my office PC. ;-)

regards.
 
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