So I am trying to find a reason to stick with Smoothwall when my Slackware 13.37 with IPtables, Squid Proxy, ClamAV, DansGuardian does as good a job or better.

The mods for the 64 bit version of Smoothwall are esswentially not available, it is mostly 32 bit and work very well.

What I can't seem to get past is feeling like by running a 32 bit OS on 64 bit CPU I am short changing myself and not getting the full value and capability I purchased (though the machine in question here was donated to the non-profit organization I do volunteer work for).

So move to a 32 bit Smoothwall, install the mods or wipe the system and go 64 bit Slack with the IPTables setup, Av, etc that Smooth offers except it is running on 64 bit Slack?

Thoughts on this?

Rasta420

Hi,

If it works don't fix it!

In the past I would use Easy Firewall Generator 'Alien_Bob's Slackware® Adaptation'

No need for a new firewall for me since this one has been running on the server/gateway without issues.

If you're already familiar with networking, firewalls and proxies then stick with Smoothwall, which is a great firewall. If you want to learn, as I did when faced with the same choice, then take the leap and go with the DIY solution. I learned tons of stuff this way that I would never have learnt had I opted for the point-and-click solution.

on reason it use Smoothwall over Slackware is the quality of the URL filtering from Dan's Guardian. Randomly go to some web sites and see what Dan's Guardian has them rated/categorized. It only seems correct about 1/2 the time. If you don't want your end users complaining about being disallowed access to web sites when they should be able to see them (False Positive - Web Filter Block) don't use Dan's Guardians default URL Filter Database

You can also check out Shorewall, fwbuilder. or firehol(see Slaclbuilds.org). Also, iptables via rc.firewall is not that difficult with a little research and practice.

thanks for the replies / information, all very good feedback on this question. I have been using smoothwall for quite some time now back to 2.0 actually and with a little massaging of dan's guardian and some other homebrew mods it has worked exceptionally well on the most antiquated hardware.

I actually have a smoothwall 2.0 running on a Pentium 133 with 128MB ram and a 5Gb WD drive, the thing is a dinosaur (but smooth loves it). humms right along, never a complaint about the internet being slow or anything.

Right now at home I am using my main desktop and the rc.firewall generated from AlienBob's wonderful site with some minor modifications, I also have Dan's installed, snort and clamav, SElinux with a few custom scripts that parse logs and send me email based on certain criteria it might detect in the logs.

Online gaming through it is awesome, no issues, but gaming through the older smoothie box is questionable with 3 clients...i guess depends on solution and user base as always...

Seems like I have a little more functionality with the Slack build (plus 64 bit support)

In the end i just installed the 32bit smoothie and the mods and moved on...works quit well, and since this is only a health care facility there are only like 14 websites allowed out through it, so once again user base and logic win out

Thanks again for the replies and thoughts

Rasta420