whats the best firewall security

[Dreameriz]

ok so i just have to ask because i have been using norton 360 which is a power hog and i need some all around good total security for my systems just wondering what ever body else is using and what good and does not take alot of power

[CollinR]

A good router/firewall atop your network is a good start. After that the Windows firewall should suffice just fine.

Agreed Norton is bloatware.

[matt91]

I use this (free) one http://www.comodo.com/

I saw it recommded someplace, and tried it. Seems to do the job well.

PS 500th post!

[SHS]

McAfee and Norton are junk and have been for so long it an't funny the only thing that keep them a round is BIG OEM which install this carp.
Just a few good names to look at
BitDefender
ZoneAlarm
Kaspersky
Avira

[davephan]

I used ZoneAlarm in the past. I would include ZoneAlarm as a 'power hog' that drags the performance down to the gutter.

Dave

[Serra]

Kaspersky is very good. Get the multi-year version to save money.

[planetc]

Given that quite a lot of us here run small networks I am surprised nobody has mentioned smoothwall. Based on a cut down linux install it dispenses with any need for a firewall on the host and is as good, if not better than anything you will get without paying lots of money. Just get hold of an old pc and a couple of nics, its not fussy about processor speeds or ram so parts are often found in our spares piles. Install it then put the pc in line between you and the outside world. It is highly flexible, and anyone capable of setting up a sage box should find it simple to get a base install running. I have a p3 1gig content filtering my daughters use too using Dansguardian but it'll run on a 486 as a simple firewall for the average house.

http://www.smoothwall.org/

[vexhold]

Smoothwall = Wow

Never knew it existed.

(looks around for spare parts and a test environment)

THANKS

[Dreameriz]

yes i have never heard of smoothwall but after reading i like it will have to but i have to get a spare pc to build it i like this option the best

[jm987]

If you have a spare machine around, I'm using a firewall package from Astaro. The software is free for home use and up to 10 IP's.

http://www.astaro.com/

It gives you a heck of a lot more power and options that you could even begin to need but it's the best free software that I've used. It took me a little while and lots of reading to get it working though so I'd recommend having some networking knowledge before you begin.

JM

[planetc]

Originally Posted by jm987

If you have a spare machine around, I'm using a firewall package from Astaro. The software is free for home use and up to 10 IP's.

http://www.astaro.com/

It gives you a heck of a lot more power and options that you could even begin to need but it's the best free software that I've used. It took me a little while and lots of reading to get it working though so I'd recommend having some networking knowledge before you begin.

JM

Smoothwall has no ip limit, it can be installed with minimal reading for a quick setup in as little as 30mins. It is the open source arm of a company that supplies commercial firewall solutions. It is also a little like the firewall equivilent of Sage in that it has a community that create modifications to expand it's functionality. The one I am running now does my content filtering, as I said, it also does AV for me and will actually allow me to log Instant Messaging conversations if and when the need arises. I used to run one with seperate internal subnets with multiple pcs on one and web, mail and dns servers on the other and it was superb. You can even use it to provide load balancing for multiple net connections with mods. To the best of my knowledge there is nothing open source out there quite as flexible. When I ran servers I was regularly getting issues through my routers built in firewall, I never had another problem after switching. I wouldn't put my faith in anything else.
That said, for those that are interested there is also Clark Connect, which is a similar idea. I tried it and found it harder to setup and less flexible.

[davephan]

Can Smoothwall assign reserved IP addresses to MAC addresses?

Dave

[planetc]

Originally Posted by davephan

Can Smoothwall assign reserved IP addresses to MAC addresses?

Dave

Yes. It has a full dhcp server built in. It will also do static addressing and has dynamic dns configuration included. Also useful for us is realtime network bandwidth monitoring on a per client basis and it has traffic graphs and monthly bandwidth usage logs as well, all in an idiot proof gui!!

[psklenar]

Would this run on an Atom based mini system like an MSI Wind (65w max) or a Shuttle Mini (60w max)?

Right now I'm "getting by" with the firewall in my router (Linksys WRT54GS v7) and the individual Windows Firewalls in each system. I'm planning to flash an old v2.1 WRT54GS to DD-WRT, and replace the v7 unit, for a somewhat better firewall and the ability to track all bandwidth usage into/out of my house net. I hate to add another electrical device if not necessary, but ... if a standalone, low power unit can do it for me better than what I've got in my current router/firewall or what I'll get from my planned DD-WRT based router/firewall ...

Thanks for any thoughts,
pat----

[planetc]

Like I said, for simple firewall purposes it'll run on a 486, so you should have a flyer with anything better. I use a p3 1gig now purely because content filtering is a little more resource intensive. The original unit I set up some years back was on a p2 400 with 64mb of ram and it was fine running my home network and servers, no detectable latency at all.

[Dreameriz]

ok here is my question for power reason i dont want to have another device that sucks alot of power and just trying to find ways to cut power use down

my question is if any one know with smoothwall can i use a usb stick 8g with it would it work as a harddrive i dont know if that would be possible just wondering same thing want to use less power as possible

[planetc]

Read through the smoothwall forums, there are people that use them with solid state drives and such like so I would imagine it is possible. The hard drive doesn't do much anyway, particularly if you have enough ram because the whole lot runs in the ram and is designed to cache as much as possible into ram. I can't see how you would get much of a swapfile going on a machine serving this purpose.

[[JiF]Mike]

I use ClarkConnect which is also a Linux based firewall with lots of bells and whistles. Easy to setup and use. The home version is free for use. I've been using it for 2 years now without any trouble. I haven't heard of smoothwall but may throw it on one of my other pc's to check it out as well. I love finding new stuff to play with!

P.S. - Grab the Community Edition if you want to try it, that's the free one.

[gtallan]

In a similar vein, m0n0wall is also well worth a look. Freebsd-based, nice web gui, can run entirely from flash or CD.

http://m0n0.ch/wall/

I totally agree that a decent network firewall like m0nowall or smoothwall, plus the windows firewall on individual machines, is completely sufficient. Most of the add-on Windows firewalls seem like irritating scareware.

Originally Posted by planetc

Given that quite a lot of us here run small networks I am surprised nobody has mentioned smoothwall. Based on a cut down linux install it dispenses with any need for a firewall on the host and is as good, if not better than anything you will get without paying lots of money. Just get hold of an old pc and a couple of nics, its not fussy about processor speeds or ram so parts are often found in our spares piles. Install it then put the pc in line between you and the outside world. It is highly flexible, and anyone capable of setting up a sage box should find it simple to get a base install running. I have a p3 1gig content filtering my daughters use too using Dansguardian but it'll run on a 486 as a simple firewall for the average house.

http://www.smoothwall.org/

[Dreameriz]

Originally Posted by planetc

Given that quite a lot of us here run small networks I am surprised nobody has mentioned smoothwall. Based on a cut down linux install it dispenses with any need for a firewall on the host and is as good, if not better than anything you will get without paying lots of money. Just get hold of an old pc and a couple of nics, its not fussy about processor speeds or ram so parts are often found in our spares piles. Install it then put the pc in line between you and the outside world. It is highly flexible, and anyone capable of setting up a sage box should find it simple to get a base install running. I have a p3 1gig content filtering my daughters use too using Dansguardian but it'll run on a 486 as a simple firewall for the average house.

http://www.smoothwall.org/

ok so one quick question though on this i have setup it up as my modem in as a usb and network cable to my router my question is do i connect to the router as the lan or a pc ?