Hello everyone. I'm Tito from PR but stationed in Norfolk VA. I've been in the Navy for approximatelly 17yrs and counting. I was a Commodore Amiga fan to start but support got bad and found the need to switch and got caught in the claws of MS. I do some VB programming and C++ and have used windows for a long time. Latelly it seems that every upgrade tends to be more of a sales inquiry than just a plain easy to use Operating system demanding more of a system and producing less than what expected "meaning that Vista is slow in comparison to XP and XP is slower than 2000, etc...". So right now I'm looking to use linux to build a firewall / Server to take out some of those windows resourse hogging programs (firewall, antivirus, etc) and use what I believe is a stronger more secure OS to handle it such as Linux. Consider me a newbie on Linux.

Now this is where the questions start and let me say thanks in advanced. I would like to know which version of Linux would be the best one to start out with(I like nice GUI's(point and click style)). Also, what add-on software would be good to install for security features such as Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-pishing, Malware, Spyware, email spam, etc... I've been lead to ubuntu server and I have downloaded it from their website. I tried installing it but get errros so for now I'm a little disapointed with it. But willing to keep on trying if someone can lead me in the right direction.

well guys and gals thanks for your time and can't wait to hear from you all on said questions.

Hi there.

Well, you're off to a good start! That you've been in the navy for 17 years tells me that you are 17 or older, you type complete sentences, and your motivation is not running windows games on emulators.
Unfortunately I can't personally help you with firewalls and servers as I use pre-configured ones myself.
About security: all the big distributions are reasonably secure. But of course linux provides security solutions for all levels of paranoia.

Have fun!

Hi,

Did you write down the error(s)? It might give us an idea what went wrong. But if you like a nice GUI, Ubuntu-server is probably not what you are looking for anyway. It is a complete LAMP system but it comes without any GUI at all.It's not that it is difficult to add one yourself but it may be more convenient to start from something that has a GUI out of the box. That could be almost any Linux. One of the strong points of Linux is that there isn't any real distinction between "home", "pro" and "server" editions. It the software that you install that makes it one thing rather than the other.
I would say that Ubuntu (non-server), CentOS (a free Red Hat clone) openSuse (based on Suse/SLED) or Debian would make good choices. They have a GUI, lots of software package are available, there is a plenty of documentation on the net (e.g. Yolinux.com) and they aren't all that difficult to set up for a beginner.
Many of the security issues you mention are far less of a threat to Linux than they are to windows. While Linux viruses could exist, it has been years since anyone has seen anything worthy of that name. The same goes for malware and spyware. The only reason you may want to set up anti-virus is if you server is connected to a windows network: your Linux server may be secure but that doesn't mean that it can't pass viruses on to the windows boxes on the network. One of the most frequently used av applications is Clamav. The better spam filters include applications such as bogofilter and spamassassin. And of course, a good firewalls is crucial. You may want to look into iptables. Learn about root and user permissions and be careful about who gets access to what and how they are allowed to authenticate.

If you're building a firewall, you will need to be very careful about what is on the system. GUI components are not something that should be on there.

Google reveals a few resources to get you started ("building firewalls with linux"). However, I do recommend you get a good book on the subject and really lock down the OS.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplan...orials/6273/1/
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1212
http://www.wiley.com/legacy/compbook...og/35366-3.htm

Hi Tito.
I think Novell OpenSUSE 10.3 is the best choice.
It based on Linux 2.6.22.5-31 Kernel, and have some usefull package like :
(1) Novell AppArmor v2.1 (for gain better security),
(2) Kontact v1.2.4 (an integrated environment for Mail/Contact/Calendar/.. with facilities for Antispam/Antivirus isues ),
(3) Yast2 (an integrated environment for easy ...:
(a) Instal/update/remove Software Packages,
(b) Managing Hardware Devices (Removable/IO/Multimedia/... )
(c) System (Partitioning/Backup/System Setting/...)
(d) Managing Network Devices ( DSL/ISDN/MODEM/NIC/Answering System/...)
(e) Managing Network Services (HTTP/DNS/DHCP/FTP/LDAP/NFS/NTP/NIS/Proxy/VNC/SLP/Samba/...)
(f) User Managing (User/Groups/Firewall)
(g) Virtualization
(h) ...
(4) A nice GUI Desktop (KDE 3.5.7_r72) something like WinXP
(5) A very good supporting for NTFS / FAT16 / FAT32
(6) Well supporting for Ex2 / Ext3 / JFS / Reiser / XFS File Systems
(7) Thousands of ready to use softwares
(8) A nice strategy for dual booting and ofcource Multi booting
(*) I myself can implement 12 OS together in one HDD (WinXP/FreeBSD/Solaris/SUSE/RH/RHfedora/Ubuntu in versions)
(9) less bugs.
(10) Dozen of Editors/Viewers/Designers for Documents/Multimedia/Programming/...
(*) OpenOffice with a very nice supporting for accessing your documents that created in Windows
(*) pdf/ps/djvu/graphics/words doc/xls/js/java/Qt/
(11) Ofcource free!!!

some bad news:
(1) you must have a real modem ,not a software based modem (WinModem = SoftModem = HSF Modem)
(*) supporting for these kinds of modem are limited (Maybe some supoorted)
(*) You must Download a related Driver
(**) Free for limited Speed
(**) Pay for Full Speed
(*) refer to linuxant.com & conexant.com
(2) Lack of CHM Viewer
(3) LAck of Decoder for Playing Video (mpeg/dvd/...)
(*) You must Download a Decoder (Maybe by paying price)


*** you can go to opensuse.org & novell.com for gain more informations
*** You can choose a free or a retail Package
*** Retail Package have supporting from Novell co.

Good Luck

Mehrshad Moslehi

Vigol

Thanks for the warm welcome. My grammar is not the best but I try (Puerto Rican heritage, American blood). I'll take the recommendations and start looking around. Yes, my purpose is to still have windows machines running. I know tis is going to sound far fetch, but I have 10 systems, 6 desktops and 4 laptops. Laptops where recent additions due to CompUSA going out of bussiness. Desktops, it so happens everytime I upgrade I pass the older one down then I end up upgradding it as well. I have a misture of processors AMD or Intel but all running at a descent frequency. I have one as what I would like to call a server(Linux will be on it soon), then my computer it has XP(had Vista(for a lack of a better word it sucked). Also I have another mine(the experimental computer) will have linux there to learn it. The other 3 are the wife/daughter/son same for the laptops with one being mine. The errors I got during the install of ubuntu where "cannot find certain file" or something like that. I did run the parity check an it said all was good. But, in one of your advices it says it has no GUI it is a LAMPs install, and just for that fact I will shy away from it. I'll look at Debian and see where that takes me.

Thanks for the quick help, info and recommendations. Would gladly like to hear from you guys again.

Other options and clarifications:

1) When I said no GUI installed (X Windows or equivalent), what I really should have said is to MINIMIZE what is installed. This means you'll need to analyze the packages that are installed by default and remove everything but the essentials. For example, do you really need a bunch of different editors? Pick one and remove the others. Keep the system as small as possible to minimize updates and control it as much as possible. This is a good general practice, but very important for a security device.

2) Debian is good...I use it frequently. I think you'll like it.

3) You may want to try a LIVE CD before actually installing. The system will boot off the CD drive and never touch the hard drive. So, if you already did a bunch of work on a machine, but you're not sure you like the linux distro...pop in a LIVE CD and experiment.

4) I think there's a Linux firewall project somewhere. I know there's a router project; poke around. Maybe they have a solution for you that will reduce your work to just defining firewall rules (instead of the full OS config).