Best Ubuntu Firewall
 

On my prevoius version of Ubuntu which was 6.X I used Firestarter as a firewall. I have now installed version 8.04 and can't find firestarter in the GUI or on the synaptic package manager. Is Firestarter out of date and replaced by something better or are my repositories set up wrong? Don't want to use internet much untill this is sorted out. I am mainly a windows man but I am learning ubuntu. Are the repositories different in this new version?

What ports do you have open? Try scanning at Sheilds Up and scan all service ports. By default, Ubuntu shouldn't have any ports open anyway so there is not a great need for a firewall.

I connect through a router, which has a firewall built in. If you are connected behind a router, you don't really need to turn one on for the actual OS.

I'm pretty sure most Linux 'firewalls' are just front ends to the kernel's iptables anyway.

Thats exactly what I thought before my server got hacked.

According to Firestarter's website, it should be there. See here. I set my server up to be restrictive by nature, then use only the ports I selected. So, out of the thousands of ports that you have, I only have 2 of them open. Something else you can do if you are behind a router is port forwarding. Make it so port 80 goes to port 3572 on your computer, then open that port instead of 80. Just a little extra security.

I assumed that the OP is using a desktop system. By default, no ports should be open. Of course if you (op) are running a server, you are going to be opening ports and services so then you have a need for one. :)

From Firestarter website: