whats the best firewall security

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by Dreameriz

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 ?

If you have a m0n0wall setup as a firewall, then use your router only as a switch. Connect all internal network connections to the four ports on the switch part of the router. What this means is don't hook up the "Internet" side of the router to anything. Essentially you could put tape over that port. Also configure the router to disable DHCP if you are having your new firewall do it.

[Dreameriz]

will it still give interent acess through my firewall to wireless and the other question i know this sounds dumb or over proctive but i still want it to go through the wan part of the router to give me more security how i want it is

Modem > Smoothwall PC> router through wan to use its built in firewall> then to my server> the through my switchs to my connected devices

I am just not sure how to get the smoothwall and router talk through the wan port which i really want to do

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by Dreameriz

will it still give interent acess through my firewall to wireless and the other question i know this sounds dumb or over proctive but i still want it to go through the wan part of the router to give me more security how i want it is

Modem > Smoothwall PC> router through wan to use its built in firewall> then to my server> the through my switchs to my connected devices

I am just not sure how to get the smoothwall and router talk through the wan port which i really want to do

Yes it will still give internet access through the firewall to your wireless devices. All they are doing is being bridged to the wired network by the wireless part of the router.
If you want to connect to the firewall with your router by using the WAN port, you certainly can. Getting back to a server behind the router involves setting port forwarding on both of the devices, so a little complexity there. You could also do a transparent firewall to the router, which leaves only one address translation you have to do, but the same amount of rules.

For your wireless client devices, you might see some issues, though I have not confirmed this, with a double NAT, which is what happens when you put two firewalls in a row.

[KJake]

Even for simple home installations, I'm a fan of a whole-house hardware firewall. A WRT54GL or similar will do well, and can even accept custom firmwares to add additional features.

I've also run m0n0wall on an old IBM NetVista via a 32MB CF card and now have pfSense running on an old Watchguard X500 firewall with a 4GB CF Microdrive (pfSense was born from m0n0wall). I went to pfSense because it supports more than 3 network interfaces, but m0n0wall is definately a slimmer package.