Recommended Firewall for RH9

benbroad · 11-20-2004, 12:02 PM

Hi, I am teaching myself linux at the moment, and would like to pick your brains if I may.....

I have set up a test server which is running the following services:
pop3
smtp
http
mysql
ssh
a web control panel system

What would you recommend as a suitable firewall solution? Should I go down the iptables route?

All suggestions welcome.

Ta,
B.

secesh · 11-20-2004, 12:06 PM

ummm... yes?

most 'firewalls' for linux are just graphical front-ends to iptables/ipchains

benbroad · 11-21-2004, 05:40 AM

Right-o. Thanks. I am a tad new to this so I'm sorry if it was a daft question. I will go get iptables and start playing.

Thanks for your help secesh.

blueplazma · 11-21-2004, 09:58 AM

Firestarter is very easy to use and it works pretty nicely too. The downside, of course, is that you won't really learn how all this stuff works, but it depends on what you want. Either way, I've found that when you start wanting to do anything much more than just basic NAT and basic firewalling, you need to learn iptables yourself. If you want stuff like advanced logging and port forwarding, you may need to do it by hand. Otherwise, you may do well with Firestarter.

secesh · 11-21-2004, 11:35 AM

hmmm... sometimes i come off a little harsh... don't really mean it -- perhaps my nick should be "Nick Burns"

(From Saturday Night Live, if you didn't catch that allusion)