🚀 go-pugleaf

Paul Robertson (prob@usa.net) wrote:

: An industrial strength firewall is called for. I have priced commercial
: firewalls but they are quite expensive. I wondered whether we could run
: Apache as a firewall on a separate server under Linux..

(Everyone's dealt with the Apache issue, so I'll ignore that).

Yes, you can build a very secure setup using a PC and Linux.  However if you
do choose the "homebrew" approach the security of it will depend directly on
who designs and implements the solution.  If an "industrial strength"
solution is called for, don't do it yourself.  Find someone with qualifications
and experience.

You can build a reasonable packet filtering firewall using Linux and its
IP filtering facility.  You can put proxies or a cache on top of that.  You
can also make quite a good proxy server firewall using Linux and the TIS
Firewall toolkit.   All it will cost you is hardware and someone's time,
the software is all free.

Daniel.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Ayers, B.Sc (Hons), M.Sc              Email: daniel.ayers@netlink.co.nz
Network Security Specialist              DDI Phone: +64-4-916-5622
Netlink                                        Fax: +64-4-916-5300
23 Waring Taylor St, PO Box 5358            Mobile: +64-21-387-334
Wellington, New Zealand                        URL: http://www.netlink.co.nz
-- Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and not those of Netlink. --