Firewall/Router/VPN

[psyferre]

Hey folks,

 

I've been searching the forums and will continue to do so, but so far I haven't found any posts pertaining to my question... and no good info on the net that isn't 4 years old. If I've missed an entire topic devoted to this subject please forgive me and point me in the right direction :)

 

I'm looking to setup a linux box as a firewall/router/VPN endpoint for my company. We have a small network ~18 machines running OSX and Windows XP. We have a static IP and will be running several switches and WAPs behind it, along with a centOS box running trixbox.

 

As a linux n00b I'm trying to find a solution that maybe isn't completely terminal based, and probably a full distro vs ipcop, since I want to easily add-on stuff in the future. The VPN would need to be able to have remote client's connect from mac or pc, and possibly another VPN endpoint at some point in the future.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for which distro to use and whether to download/purchase CDs or ftp install?

 

Thanks,

 

Psy

[anyweb]

i'd recommend smoothwall, its got more than enough features to do what you want,

 

I wrote a review of the alpha version here [/url]http://linux-noob.com/review/smoothwall/3/ with screenshots but for your needs i'd recommend using smoothwall express 2.0 (stable)

 

oh yeah, I wrote a review of that too here > http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5897

 

so read those, and see does it fit the bill, and by the way, i have two networks here at home running linux/xp/vista and all are protected by two smoothwalls, including linux-noob.com

 

alternatively you could use fedora core release 6, which has iptables included but getting vpn/router/firewall working with that will require knowledge of editing iptables rules

 

the iptables section of linux-noob has a lot of posts covering those topics right here [url=<___base_url___>/index.php?showforum=40][/url][url=<___base_url___>/index.php?showforum=40]https://www.linux-noob.com/forums/index.php?showforum=40

 

 

 

cheers

anyweb

[psyferre]

Thank you VERY much for the info. I read your review and it does seem like it will do what I need. Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions for a solution that will run on a full distro with xwindows? Being a PC guy most of the time I'm a curious about the pros and cons... is it better to run something like smoothwall that is the only thing running on the system? Or is it just as good or better to run something like gentoo for ease of setup and just install software that does what you want?

 

Thanks for the input!

[anyweb]

its better to use a dedicated solution such as smoothwall, you can manage it via any of the computers on your lan via a webbrowser, couldnt be simpler.

 

secondly, installing gentoo is anything but simple, if you are new to linux then distros such as fedora, suse, ubuntu, mandriva are good to start with (and stay with)

 

I use fedora core release 6 currently as my distro of choice, and it is behind the smoothwall (which manages my firewall/logging/intrusion detection and more)

 

cheers

anyweb

[psyferre]

awesome. I'll use smoothwall.

 

I appreciate all your help! Thanks a million!

 

Psy