Best firewall distro?

surf9090 · 01-06-2006, 01:33 PM

I would like to build a linux firewall box that resembles a soho router like a linksys or netgear 4-port router. That means I want to install 5 NICs, 1 for the WAN the others to be used as LAN ports to plug other PC's and servers into. Can this even be done and which distro is best for this "multi-green zone" config? SmoothWall, MonoWall or IPCop? Also, which one is easiest to setup with Mobile VPN (W2K/XP clients)

acid_kewpie · 01-06-2006, 02:35 PM

why would you want to do this? it's not a "4 port router" these guys make, but a 1 port router with a 4 port switch glued to it. just get a standard firewall installation with one red, one green and buy a £10 switch to plug it into. what functionality are you expecting from doing this? ipcop is horribly easy to set up, but remember that as all these produucts are gpl based and all that, you would only have open source vpn connectivity, so any proprietary M$ junk isn't likely to have too much success.

surf9090 · 01-06-2006, 04:31 PM

ok, so as far as the vpn goes, if the standard ms stuff doesn't work well, is there a good vpn client that can be installed for a mobile user on a w2k/xp machine that would connect to an ipcop box?

acid_kewpie · 01-06-2006, 04:44 PM

well ipcop for one just provides a generic ipsec vpn server, so likewise any generic client should work. it may well be that M$ *IS* generic, but i don't have any idea either way about that one... just a warning that's all.