Security Basics: Re: firewalls

["H. Kurth Bemis" <kurth () kurthbemis com>]

Damian wrote:
> So I need some advice on firewall security. I use ubuntu servers at work and am very comfortable with debian.  At 
> work we have a cisco piz firewall....however another smaller company we help doesn't have the budget or staff for a 
> pix firewall.  I was considering using a distro like redwall or smoothwall and was wondering if anyone had any 
> experience with dedicated distros like these.  Also do these distros offer better security then larger installations?
I'm a fan of iptables on linux (CentOS for me) and pf on OpenBSD.

To get a iptables firewall up and running quickly I generally use
shorewall (http://www.shorewall.net) to get a base set of rules in
place, and then tweak the rules as needed.

For pf checkout the OpenBSD manual at OpenBSD.org (http://www.openbsd.org)

Also check out smoothwall (http://www.smoothwall.org/).  I've heard a
lot about m0n0wall, but never used it.  I think it lives at
http://www.m0n0wall.ch.  Google would know.

~kurth