How many firewalls do you have?
 

I have 2 One built into my lan

the other is on Windows xp

I just have a linksys hardware firewall right now.

I am planning to setup a linux box with two network cards to replace the linksys, i have just not had the time.

I used to also run Zone Alarm Pro, however it got very annoying so i disabled it.

I ahve the linksys firewall that i know of at home... as for whats at platteville, i'm sure there are a few but i dont know enough about their set-up yet....

my router has port stealth

and i have Tiny Personal Firewall and BlackICE defender to cover those open ports and traces packets

I use a floppy firewall/dhcp/router on a 486DX2/66 floppyfw
It works great, I ran NeoWatch for a month on a machine hooked to
the floppyfw but there is no need, NOTHING showed up on the
NeoWatch so I uninstalled it.
The firewall machine itself can be attacked but not
much can be done with a writeprotected floppy and
16 meg memory ramdisk, I turn it of every night
so if anything it will be gone.

nice!!

is the installation and setup easy for that OS?
i have a P133 (donated to my from my friend) doing nothing and ive been thinking of turning it into a router for a while
even though i have a sucky router, i need a good hardware firewall...

does floppyfw support just the firewall feature?
because i want to connect it just to my adsl modem and out to my router...

how applicable would that setup be?

Floppyfw does Routing,Firewall and dhcp
i added a package that logs in as well specially made for Telia swedens
ADSL log in.

The setup is easy get two 3com cards, 10mbt is enough
I use ISA 3com, 3com because linux has such an easy time
with them and cheap for used ones

a floppy drive (no HDD needed)
KBRD and Monitor just needed a first

I liked one called JT that I found in one of their links

Just read the howtoes on their page

It is good to have the 3com software so you can boot with

MS floppy and set them to different IRQs and ports
if you look at the 3com cards it sais ethernet address
somewhere the lowest number (in hex) becomes
eth0 the one to hook to your
ADSL modem (or other)
eth1 connects to switch/hub or single puter

in MSIE and network just set it to get IP automaticly
and you are ready to go.

You might have to try some different distroes
to fit your stuff the best

just download a few images and make floppies to try
there is a config file on the floppy you can change
from w9x with write (note pad messes with carrige returns (CR)
you need to change to static IP if that is what you have
default is dynamic

and depending on your supplier it can be enough
to put username and pass in config to log in ( I needed extra package)
otherwise you just log in from your surfing puter

well it is all fairly easy it helps to know linux but no need (I don't)
just read HOWTOes

how bout Dlink?

i luv DLink network stuff...

whats the point of posting that?

my friend bought the 604 2 weeks ago and its all good for him

DLink is one of the best quality network interface maker

well it is about all I know about them
had good d-link hubs at work though
but as routers I do not know

Dlinks simply is superior compared to 3com and SMC

that is why my dad worked for them
my dad is the one who got DLink onto the stock market

Norton vs Mcafee
 

ever put both on the same system? its funny to watch

I have only what i need, my linksys wireless router thats encripted and Mcafee personal firewall and virus scan pro .............. but its not like I paid for Mcafee and its not like im paying for the updates eather lol

dlink has got to be the worst networking gear you can buy. i am currently running openWRT on my Linksy WRT54G v3. I could recommend it still, except that V5 is becoming more popular, and it's got crappy hardware and no longer runs linux. the Asus wg500 deluxe is has some nice hardware (200 Mhz, 32 MB RAM, 4MB flash). Buffalo also makes some nice routers that can run linux e.g. http://www.buffalotech.com/products/...8&categoryid=6 this one w/ 266 MHz processor, 64 MB ram, and 8 MB flash. I don't think it ocmes w/ USB, but i'm sure you could mod it to support it if yo uare good with soddering. I generally don't bother with firewalls on my individual machines b/c i run linux and don't have to worry about spyware. I do have iptables on my laptop, but don't always run it.

wait 200MHz?!? thats stone age

I just use a router. When and if I suspect problems then I will install other programs temporarily.

The reason i like mcafee is unlike norton and windows anti spywear and other programs it doesent seem to slow my computer too much exsept on startup.

my router is set on low firewall setting and i just use windows firewall/AVG/Windows Defender. never ever had a problem

Zone Alarm + AVG + Router Firewall at home... At work it's nuts... Zone Alarm + Cisco madness + AVG + Norton + Windows Defender + etc... it's out of control

not for a router it isn't. most commoidty routers are about 125Mhz. As you go up in price, you get more ram and more powerful CPUs. These tend to be better performers. The highest i've seen, except getting into 4 digit cost cisco-type gear, is like 400Mhz, which is still actually aimed at ISPs, but for low cost wireless networking across significant distances. So yea, 200Mhz is not stone age. For a PC yes, for a commodity router, it's quite fine.

this is actually quite a bad idea. If you get a rootkit installed, it can be impossible to install any kind of cleaning software (firewalls, AV, anti-malware, etc.) or when it's installed, it can be neutralized. Rootkits give that code root access to your computer, and there is nothing you can do to clean it other than wipe and install. The prevalence of them in a Windows environment makes it very important to install anti-malware software and keep it checking in real time. This definitely hits gaming performance when making harddrive writes, but is the safest way to operate by far.

sorry i was thinking computers lol

argumentum ad verecundiam, appeal to authority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_authority

now I hold a middleground between you and eviltechie. It's not the worst, they are a decent manufacturer, but they are far from the best at producing networking equipment, regardless of his father getting it on the stock market. Their IPO wasn't focused on routers if I'm not mistaken.

It's not stone age, a consumer router doesn't necessitate intense processing speeds. It sounds like a little overkill actually. As Bear stated earlier he is running a 486 computer for a router, at 66Mhz. These machines only generally have to perform up to layer 3 processing.

Speaking of D-link. I had a router of theirs once, and it worked great while it was in use... I retired it, and then a couple months tried to use it and it was toast...

they're better than netgear anyway, at least in my experience...

My only firewall is from Microsoft (SP2, I think?)... Is that a bad thing?

It's not a very good thing... The MS firewall only filters inbound traffic. Outbound traffic can be bad too (say a bad program gets on your comp, you don't want to infect others or it to steal your info).


Zonealarm is free and works well. It's painless once you get it configured (every program has to ask you for access).

Eh.. the reason I don't like firewalls beside the MS one is that I can't host any games on "Starcraft". I'll get one anyways and try to configure it.

Yeah starcraft can be a pain that way.I've actually been at lans where people's MS firewall was causing conflicts and my zone alarm wasn't. It's all in knowing how to work it.

I simply use the Windows XP if need be; albeit I may be under-protected, I found that some professional firewalls ended up trying "too much" and ended up hindering my computer altogether :/

Yeah, I've seen it happen on my parents computer one time. As for me, other than the occasional non-serious virus, I've never ever had any security related problems on any of my computers for the past 11 years. And before 6 months ago I didn't even use a router.

But I still keep that in the back of my mind and do regular backups of important files.

You're not immune to viruses just because you're in Canada. :P

What? They have the Internet in Canada now? (I kid! I kid!)

But yeah ... I use a Linux or BSD-based NAT router, and that's enough firewall for me. I only forward a few ports to a select few applications, and I'm not worried about outgoing connections, since I'm fully aware of what I have running on my computer (and don't stupidly run executables with which I'm not familiar). I use CS-AV protection ... that is, common sense anti-virus. It's worked flawlessly for me for the past ~17 years :).

The best thing about CS-AV... it's free!

I hear it is a real resource hog though... :P

LOL! I just got it.... can you believe I actually searched google once looking up "common sense anti-virus". And then it clicked.


Yeah, I'm an idiot.

:lol:.... well, it is late...

Actually , you would find a few links...(slow day, time on my hands)

http://www.clarksupport.com/tenrules.htm

Cause face it, you can google almost anything... ;)

My anti virus is completely free (to me at least) and works like a charm (thank you hackers they cracked mcafee :P )

AVG gives me a false sense-of-security... :thumbsup: