[plug] RedHat vs Debian-internet - gateway to dialup internet on modem

[Michael Hunt]

Daniel wrote:

> I thought it best for me to go for an integrated firewall specific distro
> such as:
> Smoothwall, Immunix, Engarde, ClarkConnect,  Astaro (Kernel 2.4 gives the
> added iptables, but it seems conservative solutions are staying away from
> 2.4 until it has more exposure) and
> MandrakeSingleNetworkFirewall"SNF" (tried: Installed easily, but no
> documentation found on site, so setup not complete)

Don't forget the floppy based distros like "Freesco" (hey someone has to
mention it). For a very lightweight solution nothing I have found beats it.
Smoothwall seems to be my next bet and is in very active development and
looks like the perfect solution. I had heard that Smoothwall were looking
for a pre sales engineer in the UK and if I wasn't/had to come back to oz I
would have like to have applied.

I like the fact that distro are now coming out with firewall products as I
think there is a very good market for this. If some cheap simple hardware
could be put together it would be quite easy to use one of these systems and
create a nice firewall system. My only problem is that there doesn't appear
to be any that are Debian based and I think that this is a shame given the
huge developer community for detain and the short time they take to get
fixes out.

Michael Hunt

An Aussie in Africa