What does Smoothwall Express offer over my D-Link?

Hello all, and I hope you can suffer a noob question.

I have a small business network with 1 server, 12 computers, off of a cable modem. My D-Link DI-524 router died (I think it overheated in our West Coast heat wave last week). I've dabbled with Linux in the past, and seen IPCop and Smoothwall Express, and thought now might be the time to try them out.

But I don't want to throw effort after foolishness. What, exactly, will I get from IPCop and Smoothwall Express that I can't get from a replacement D-Link router? And does the fact that I don't really know mean I shouldn't bother? I have an extra 300MHz computer with two NICs that I could use in a pinch, so hardware isn't an issue.

Reply to
Marty Christion
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Hello all, and I hope you can suffer a noob question.

I have a small business network with 1 server, 12 computers, off of a cable modem. My D-Link DI-524 router died (I think it overheated in our West Coast heat wave last week). I've dabbled with Linux in the past, and seen IPCop and Smoothwall Express, and thought now might be the time to try them out.

But I don't want to throw effort after foolishness. What, exactly, will I get from IPCop and Smoothwall Express that I can't get from a replacement D-Link router? And does the fact that I don't really know mean I shouldn't bother? I have an extra 300MHz computer with two NICs that I could use in a pinch, so hardware isn't an issue.

Reply to
Marty Christion

Well, you should not be messing around with that in a business situation yourself. If anything, you should get a professional to do it properly.

I myself wouldn't be using anything host based on some gateway computer to protect anything in a business situation. You should go get yourself a low-end FW appliance or (a FW router that's ICSA certified), that's hard to mis-configure.

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

Why? I use (and have set up for business clients) m0n0wall systems. These can run on generic PCs or on teeni tiny diskless thingies that I guess together with m0n0wall make it an appliance. I typically recommend using the appliance box, but that is for reliability and energy consumption, not because it is fundamentally more secure.

What things like smoothwall offer, if you want it, is some application level proxying (like squid for HTTP) and also sophisticated logging and IDS.

If you happen to have the hardware around (and any old thing will do), it's very cheap.

-j

Reply to
Jeffrey Goldberg

I never said it wasn't. It's all based on the user's ability to configure the solution properly including the O/S and maintain it, which is just about a non issue with an appliance.

I don't doubt it. But again, it comes down to someone's technical expertise in knowing how to configure and maintain the solution properly.

Again, I don't doubt it. But in a business situation with a business owner who maybe the one who has to support it, I would go with the FW appliance.

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

I guess my point is that it is hard for me to distinguish smoothwall from an appliance, other than its a bring your own hardware. I suspect that there are VAR resellers who install smoothwall on small boxes and sell it as an appliance. You are aware that smoothwall isn't something that sits on top a Linux system that one must maintain separately?

That type of business owner is my typical customer. Now I don't tend to recommend smoothwall solutions (for various other reasons), but it does, to me, fall in the category of something that is maintainable by someone who's never heard of Linux. Smoothwall is designed to be used that way.

Many of the reasons that appliances are good solutions apply to things like smoothwall.

-j

Reply to
Jeffrey Goldberg

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