Smoothwall + ADSL

Greetings My knowledge of security issues is very limited,at the moment I run a small ( 3 computer ) LAN using dialup. I am curently using an old 233 with a Linux variant called 'Smoothwall' as a firewall,my dialup modem connects to the firewall which is connected to a hub to share with the other computers In the coming week I will be connecting via ADSL with a modem supplied by my ISP. I am wondering if anyone can tell me if I can just replace my dialup modem with the ADSL unit as I am quite happy with my firewall, or do ADSL modems have inbuilt firewall properties that make my firewall obsolete Regards Geoff

A standalone ADSL modem is just that a modem just like your dial-up modem is just a modem nither one has any protection features to prevent an attack from the Internet. However, there are ADSL modem/router combinations with the router part of the combination that has FW like features.

Duane :)

My low-end FW appliance cost around $250. So I don't know where you're coming up with this so called $1,000 FW appliance someone would be using in a SOHO environment. If you're going to come down on others for suggests that are being made, then you need to come correct.

Duane :)

My ADSL/Smoothwall setup did not turn out to be easy or indeed even working :( My ISP supplied me with a Siemens Speedstream 4200 which connects to a pc via usb or ethernet. I connected it to my Smoothwall but was unable to get Smoothwall to recognise it I now have the 3 boxes without firewalls and would like advice on recomended software firewalls for each box until I can configure / purchase a dedicated firewall appliance regards Geoff

You can use Kerio 2.15, Outpost or Sygate they all do the same thing and they are (free).

As far as a plug it up and go FW appliance with little config on your part with free support for 90 days you can go with a low-end Watchguard Firbox 3 SOHO 6. The do an a X series out now or some other manufacture like Sonicwall, Snapgear, Netscreen.

Or you can go with a NAT router and supplement the NAT router on outbound if needed with a PFW solution at the machine level.

Duane :)

Sounds like you didn't get Smoothwall set up correctly. I have it on an old pc and it's working just fine. When you connected it, did you have the red nic set for DHCP, so it would get an ip address from your Speedstream? An do you have the green nic (your lan) set to a different ip subnet?? Are your pc's able to get an ip address from Smoothwall??

Gene I have had my Smoothwall operating on dialup for quite some time now which i really like but........ there is every good chance I didnt get my smoothwall set correctly for ADSL I could not even get Smoothwall to recognise the modem at all My dialup setup was more than likely a 'hit and miss' approach rather than knowing exactly what I was doing :/ I didnt know I would need to set DHCP on the red nic and no....I did not use different subnets If you wouldnt mind explaining in detail the correct setup and emailing me I would be grateful Id really like to have my smoothwall back again Thanks in advance Geoff

Geoff,

Try Zone Alarm for your PC's while your firewall is out of action. It's free for personal use.

Regards

Geoff,

Several of my friends switched over to a Smoothy because they found IPCOP too much effort to configure (that's a new one for me :o).

They initially had just a red( dial up modem) and one nic for green going to a DSS 5+ switch. No grief whatsoever, they claimed.

Then some of them got HS cable and wanted to hook it up to their smoothy. They also couldn't get their Motorola sb4200 to be recognized by the smoothy box but they just removed their dial up modems, inserted another nic to be the red side, flashed her up and ran setup to 'see' the new nic. They never changed any other setting.

Booted up and the smoothy panel said that it had errors (still showing dial up profile) but it worked. They have been running this way for several years now.... they are too lazy to fix it but it very stable and secure.

I have since done upgrades for others that were previously on dial up and that approach does work.

You might want to try their approach. It works for several others.

ozzy

On ADSL, does the modem have an ethernet port? Can you connect a pc to the modem and does it work, if so do you get an ip address from the modem on the pc?

I really don't know ADSL set-up, I have mine running off a router to my cable modem. Just make sure you have the NIC's plugged in correctly. ie: red - wan (internet) and green -lan (your local network) and if you installed all (3) then the orange? is your DMZ pc if you have one...

My router is on 192.168.1.***, this is the wan side of smoothwall. I have dhcp set-up to issue a 192.168.5.***. That way I know on what side of the fire wall somethis is connected to. If I used the same ip sub-net I couldn't tell what side of the firewall is was on..

Let us know how it's going...

I just had to reset (software on the firewall) (2) of my cards. I must of hit a wrong key while I was looking at the nics and (2) of them needed to be re-configured ( as to what color red,green,orange) each nic card was.... Once I had that and smoothwall rebooted itself, all was well and working again...

Once you get it set-up correctly, it runs and runs and runs....

On ADSL, does the modem have an ethernet port? Can you connect a pc to the modem and does it work, if so do you get an ip address from the modem on the pc?

I really don't know ADSL set-up, I have mine running off a router to my cable modem. Just make sure you have the NIC's plugged in correctly. ie: red - wan (internet) and green -lan (your local network) and if you installed all (3) then the orange? is your DMZ pc if you have one...

My router is on 192.168.1.***, this is the wan side of smoothwall. I have dhcp set-up to issue a 192.168.5.***. That way I know on what side of the fire wall somethis is connected to. If I used the same ip sub-net I couldn't tell what side of the firewall is was on..

Let us know how it's going...

I just had to reset (software on the firewall) (2) of my cards. I must of hit a wrong key while I was looking at the nics and (2) of them needed to be re-configured ( as to what color red,green,orange) each nic card was.... Once I had that and smoothwall rebooted itself, all was well and working again...

Once you get it set-up correctly, it runs and runs and runs....

Thanks to all for the replies I will attempt to configure my Smoothwall this weekend In the mean time I have found the config settings for my modem,it has an inbuilt firewall with configuration page incoming and outgoing rules Would this inbuilt firewall be just as good as running the Smoothwall or any other other dedicated box etc ? Regards Geoff rules

amendment......disregard 'rules' after name seems I screwed up my editing ;)

You can look at *What does a FW do?*. I doubt that the modem/(no FW but FW like features) router can match a host based software network FW or a dedicated FW appliance (that's not a NAT router mind you) solution. But the NAT router is good enough for the typical home user not doing high risk things like port forwarding.