[CS-FSLUG] [C_LUG] Firewalls for Linux?

[John Dudeck]

Greg wrote:
[...]
> Can anybody point me to a reliable source of comparative testing for 
> firewalls which run under Linux?
> 
> (Note: I am not talking here about implementations like Smoothwall, 
> which are designed to run on a separate machine, but rather something 
> designed to run in the background on a user's Linux box, which in our 
> case probably means a notebook.)

All Linux distributions come with iptables, which is the port filtering 
mechanism that is used for firewalling, whether it be a full network 
firewall, or simply the firewalling of the machine itself.

While there are other filtering packages available, I'm not aware that any 
of them are better than iptables.

With Linux there really is nothing comparable to the third-party firewalls 
sold for Windows (e.g. Zone Alarm, etc). It would be like selling sand in 
Timbuktu, or drinking water in bottles (oops). You already have all you 
need, and it's full-featured, not like the Windows firewall.

Now, the issue with firewalling in Linux is the firewall rules. Most 
distributions have a default configuration that covers the bases, and a user 
interface for managing it. If you want to fully control your firewalling you 
can use fwbuilder which is free for Linux.

John Dudeck                                Tel: 704-588-9891
jdudeck at zenia.simcsg.sim.org       Charlotte, North Carolina
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