BB and Firewall

lazygit

Hello,

Right, the story:

At home i have an Eircom DLS connection, The setup is:

1 DLink DSL modem ( cant remember Modle number )
1 Billion Hardware Firewall/Gateway
1 Switch and about 6 PC's

So: The modem is hooked up to the DSL phone patch as usual, The Firewall is hooked up to the DSL modem using a crossover Cable and the Firewall is hooked into the Switch using a normal network cable. And everything works fine.


The firewall contains all the information to make the DLS modem auto redial if it is disconnected, so in theory we never need to touch the modem if we get disconnected.

So here is the problem, The firewall has Remote Admin over a web page, so we can open/close ports etc. But everytime we open/ close a port to one of the PC's in the apartment the firewall restarts, disconnecting all the PC's in the apartment from the web while it reboots, so all games/downloads time out. to say that this is a pain is an understatement
Also some time when you open the Remote admin page the firewall freezes and you have to un plug it.

So what i want to do is remove the firewall and replace it with a software firewall. i.e. a linux/windows firewall.. but i dont know how to do it... any one got any ideas how i would set this up?

ssh

I was reading your post and saying "If he had a software firewall, he wouldn't have that problem". So the last line pleased me a bit

Basically, you can do it with windows if you enjoy eye gouging pain. You can do it with a free Unix (I'm a linux person, so I'll recommend that) if you enjoy a horrible learning curve but an ultimately maintainable and highly configurable system.

The first big problem you are going to hit is the DSL modem. Is it a modem or a router... that is does it rely on a PC or somesuch to do the PPPOE stuff or can it do it itself? Could you post the model number up? I've never setup PPPOE on Linux, I let my router do it.

Next, your software firewall hardware... you'll need a PC with two network cards. You install Linux on it, and you get a kernel with iptables support.

The next issue is writing a firewall ruleset. You can do this easily enough once you understand iptables. To keep things managable, I use a sort of policy-ish approach to firewall scripts; I don't deal with firewall commands, I have higher-level functions which apply policies to different connection types to different hosts. If you PM me, I can send it to you.

quozl

have a look at smoothwall and ipcop (fork of smoothwall). They turn a dedicated old pc into a linux firewall with a nice web interface. Supports pppoe and are much easier to setup than to turn a standard distro into a dedicated firewall.

Civilian_Target

I just set up a firewall for exactly the same sort of network on my conneciton here in be Belfast. Can I recommend "Mandrake Multi-Network Firewall" http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/mnf

I've tried Smoothwall and IPcop, but both had major DHCP issues with NTLs servers, and also lacked configurability. MNF has a lot of useful stuff included, not least a DCHP server, and the ability to prioritise traffic.

And of course, because it's linux based, it's also free.

As far as hardware is concerned, we've run it as a firewall for up to 8 people with no discerenable problems, on a p120 w/64mb RAM, 2 Realtek NICs, 3.2gig quantum fireball HD, on a 1megabit connection.

Hope you find this useful.

Civilian_Target

Ripwave

And of course, because it's linux based, it's also free.

As far as hardware is concerned, we've run it as a firewall for up to 8 people with no discerenable problems, on a p120 w/64mb RAM, 2 Realtek NICs, 3.2gig quantum fireball HD, on a 1megabit connection.[/B]

Much much does 150watts of "always on" electricity cost per year? I calculate it at €160.

bk

Originally posted by Ripwave
Much much does 150watts of "always on" electricity cost per year? I calculate it at €160.

If you are worried about electricity costs of an always on pc, then you should get a ADSL router with builtin firewall, I use a Draytek Vigor 2600, excellent piece of equipment, I highly recommend it.

Ripwave

Originally posted by bk
If you are worried about electricity costs of an always on pc, then you should get a ADSL router with builtin firewall, I use a Draytek Vigor 2600, excellent piece of equipment, I highly recommend it.

My point exactly (I have a DLink).