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Do you need A Firewall? YES YOU DO!
Do you want to: Share your Internet connection? Save software and license cost? Get faster web access with a local web cache? A simple and web-based administration interface?
You get this all this with most firewalls today. There are a handful of completely free, Open Source firewalls that you can use and tat will give you even more features.
IpCop is a good choice.
The free and Open Source firewall IpCop at www.ipcop.org works very well and is quite easy to install and use. It is not the only one that you can choose, there are at least 10 more good packages out there. The install time is between 15 minutes to an hour depending on how prepared you are.
The Firewall software includes:
- dhcp-server,
- dns-server,
- web-cache,
- intrusion detection system (IDS),
- some vpn support
- DMZ support if you can and want to run something like a web server on your connection.
- there are add-on modules for msn, icq, netmeeting etc.
- and more,,,,
Setup:
- Insert the cd.
- Start your pc. (make sure that the bios is set to boot from your cd)
- Specify basics like ip-address, computer name and passwords
Passwords may be set up for an administrator, a setup account and a dial-up user.
You must at least set up your local network as the GREEN zone, and the Internet access as the RED zone.
After that the system reboots and gives you a login prompt, and you may disconnect your monitor and connect your pc's together with your ether net cables and do the final configuration with a web-browser by pointing to your firewall pc eg. Http://192.168.1.x:81 where 192.168.1.x is the ip-address you specified for your pc-firewall during the installation.
Configuration includes setting up the Internet connection, the dial-up parameters if you have a dial up connection, chap or pap authentication, and your username and password.
When everything works, there might be updates for the version you are using. You should download and install those, but you do that from the browser-interface.
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The Questions:
- How do you get this?
- Who is it for?
- What does it cost?
- How long time does it take?
- How much do you save? and
- What do you get?
The Answers:
- Install an Open Source software Firewall like IpCop
- It suits small or midsize companies with a reasonable amount of Internet access,
with mail, web access and other normal activities and maybe with a smaller local webserver
for public access. Number of users, maybe up to something like a 100 .
- The software is free so this cost and the license fee is ZERO.
Hardware cost something, but it could be an old outdated pc that you otherwise would throw away.
Planning and installation time is the only actual cost
- Installation and server configuration should be planned and scheduled,
bu the install time is short, maybe 30 minutes.
- Check the cost of commercial firewalls.
- Check the featurelist below.
You can check the hardware compatibility list on IpCop's web-pages.
You do not normally have to have a monitor connected to the firewall. It is useful during installation though.
You can download the small ISO-image from
www.ipcop.org
Burn it on to a new cd that then will be bootable for your installation. There are an installation guide on the IpCop-site in the documentation pages. You should read this so you know what to do, but the installation is quit simple.
What you need is:
- A Network and some Internet connection.
- A couple of years old pc that you can connect to your network or phone, depending on
how you connect. It could be an old 75Mhz pc.
- A minimum of 300Mb disk
- At least 32Mb memory.
- A "normal", standard, common ethernet card (or maybe two).
- If it has a cd-rom it will be easier for you to install.
- A cd with IpCop on it.
- If you use a software Usb-modem like Alcatel You also need firmware for your that.
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