SEO

Currently I'm operating slack9 on a pentium 133 with 48 megs of RAM
and a 20 gig hd. My question is which is better running slack9 with 2
nics as my firewall or just keeping the netgear router doing ip
natting with port forwarding for my services. I realize with using
slack with 2 nics I can control every single aspect of the firewall
rules & do fun stuff like packet scanning into my network but are
there any other pros? The router seems to be doing a good enough job
and I guess I wonder which is going to be more secure in the long run.
Now granetd I'm semi-new to linux but not really and I understand that
my .conf files and scripts are ultimatly goign to control how secure
the slack firewall would be. How secure is the netgear router vs a
well configured slack firewall? Is one gonig to be faster then the
other

suggestions, ideas, insults welcome

On 23 Jun 2003 14:51:04 -0700, RayzrShrp <rayzrshrp@tds.net> wrote:
> The router seems to be doing a good enough job
> and I guess I wonder which is going to be more secure in the long run.

I'd say the Linux-based machine (if configured correctly). I have no
knowledge of the workings of Netgear routers (other than IP routeing
theory), but fixes for Linux security problems seem to appear faster
than those for routers.

> Is one gonig to be faster then the other

Probably (no, I don't know which), but on the sort of Internet
connection most people have at home, you won't strain either of the
boxes.


--
Simon <simon@no-dns-yet.org.uk> **** GPG: F4A23C69
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
- Douglas Adams

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 14:51:04 -0700, RayzrShrp wrote:

> Currently I'm operating slack9 on a pentium 133 with 48 megs of RAM and
> a 20 gig hd. My question is which is better running slack9 with 2 nics
> as my firewall or just keeping the netgear router doing ip natting with
> port forwarding for my services. I realize with using slack with 2 nics
> I can control every single aspect of the firewall rules & do fun stuff
> like packet scanning into my network but are there any other pros? The
> router seems to be doing a good enough job and I guess I wonder which is
> going to be more secure in the long run. Now granetd I'm semi-new to
> linux but not really and I understand that my .conf files and scripts
> are ultimatly goign to control how secure the slack firewall would be.
> How secure is the netgear router vs a well configured slack firewall? Is
> one gonig to be faster then the other
>
> suggestions, ideas, insults welcome

My setup:

I have a p100 with 64 MB and a 6 GB disk and a 40 GB disk in the basement.
It's hooked up to two ethernet cards, one going to the lan and another to
an ADSL modem. Sustained transfer rates are always above 130KB/s, as
GkRellm would measure it.

What the system does:
1. MASQUERADE outbound connections from the LAN. 2. Mark *each* packet
that goes through the system for handling by the fwmark classifier, which
dumps them into different transmission queues. Yes, bandwidth throttling.
3. Keep an account of the amount of data sent out via and received from
the internet.
4. Apache to look at reports, and host a small web site ( not open to the
public)
5. caching name server
6. SAMBA server - shares out the 40 GB disk 7. NFS server - Like samba,
but way, way easier to handle in a controlled environment.


Speed problems: none. I could be transfering files via the lan and
maintain a 100KB download from the internet at the same time. Somehow ( I
bow to thee O Kernel Gods!) the damn thing just does it all!


If I were to use a netgear or some other router,
1. The router would be *another* device that stays up 24/7.
2. Router has no bandwidth accounting facility.
3. Caching name server/ full blown apache ( with the kitchen sink compiled
in )
4. No Traffic Control. ( www.lartc.org )
5. Not customizable, should such a need arise.
6. It dies, you call the manufacturer and haggle about warranties and
service dates etc.
7. Infrequent updated do not automatically mean there are less security
holes.
8. With linux, there is always a way to recover. What if you flash the
router the wrong way?



Advantags of a router:
1. No #@!&* infernal fan noise.
2. So simple a playskool dropout could "configure" it. ( I wish!)
3. If it dies, just get another box




hth

-jp

joseph philip wrote:
> Advantags of a router:
> 1. No #@!&* infernal fan noise.
> 2. So simple a playskool dropout could "configure" it. ( I wish!)
> 3. If it dies, just get another box

You left out the two most important advantages of using the Netgear
router. Context filtering on keywords and multiport output. For a small
home network, the router eliminates the need for a bridge or switch and
the context filter keeps unwanted stuff out off the local LAN. I filter
on the words "ads" and "doubleclick" which eliminates 99% of the
irritating internet garbage. I also screen out everything from Microsoft
to keep Bill out of my Windows boxes.If that were possible using linux,
I'd have no use for my Netgear router..

Or did I miss something? ... [Blocked by Netgear, perhaps?]

LittleJohn
Madison, AL

RayzrShrp wrote:
> Currently I'm operating slack9 on a pentium 133 with 48 megs of RAM
> and a 20 gig hd. My question is which is better running slack9 with 2
> nics as my firewall or just keeping the netgear router doing ip
> natting with port forwarding for my services. I realize with using
> slack with 2 nics I can control every single aspect of the firewall
> rules & do fun stuff like packet scanning into my network but are
> there any other pros? The router seems to be doing a good enough job
> and I guess I wonder which is going to be more secure in the long run.
> Now granetd I'm semi-new to linux but not really and I understand that
> my .conf files and scripts are ultimatly goign to control how secure
> the slack firewall would be. How secure is the netgear router vs a
> well configured slack firewall? Is one gonig to be faster then the
> other
>
> suggestions, ideas, insults welcome

I had a dedicated linux router setup. Granted it was a 486, but I
noticed a huge jump in my bandwidth when I switched over to a linksys
router. A customized linux box will almost always be more secure,
linksys is a plug it in and forget about it (for the most part).
However, thus far, I have not noticed any security problems with my
configuration using the linksys firewall.

If you do set up a linux firewall/router, the less you have installed,
the less you have to worry about patching and securing.

chello wrote:
> iptables --add INPUT --source microsoft.com --jump DROP
> iptables --add INPUT --source doubleclick.net --jump DROP

Yes, but what I want is:
iptables --add INPUT --source *microsoft* --jump DROP
iptables --add INPUT --source *doubleclick* --jump DROP
iptables --add INPUT --source *ads* --jump DROP

LittleJohn
Madison, AL

RayzrShrp wrote:
> Currently I'm operating slack9 on a pentium 133 with 48 megs of RAM
> and a 20 gig hd. My question is which is better running slack9 with 2
> nics as my firewall or just keeping the netgear router doing ip
> natting with port forwarding for my services. I realize with using
> slack with 2 nics I can control every single aspect of the firewall
> rules & do fun stuff like packet scanning into my network but are
> there any other pros? The router seems to be doing a good enough job
> and I guess I wonder which is going to be more secure in the long run.
> Now granetd I'm semi-new to linux but not really and I understand that
> my .conf files and scripts are ultimatly goign to control how secure
> the slack firewall would be. How secure is the netgear router vs a
> well configured slack firewall? Is one gonig to be faster then the
> other
>
> suggestions, ideas, insults welcome

I'd go with the linux box... far more flexible.

Unfortunately I went with an ADSL router/modem 11 months ago, and have
regretted it since. It is a Netgear DG814, and has caused me no end of
problems.... for example :

- Time out on NAT'ed connections is too low - have to change kernel
default to keep connections open (netgear seem incapable of recognising
this problem)

- Various websites are unreachable - e.g. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk for
no apparent reason. I can however reach it on e.g. telnet or some other
port....

Once I get some money I think the Netgear is going to get the boot, and
be replaced.


The only good thing about it is that it is far smaller, quieter and
hopefully cheaper to run (electricity) than a PC.



David.

On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 06:19:13 -0500, LittleJohn wrote:

> chello wrote:
>> iptables --add INPUT --source microsoft.com --jump DROP
>> iptables --add INPUT --source doubleclick.net --jump DROP
>
> Yes, but what I want is:
> iptables --add INPUT --source *microsoft* --jump DROP
> iptables --add INPUT --source *doubleclick* --jump DROP
> iptables --add INPUT --source *ads* --jump DROP
>
> LittleJohn
> Madison, AL



Option1:
All computers on lan use gateway as dns server. it's brain dead simple
from that.

Option2:
Squid, content filter rules. Or apache and mod rewrite.

A router is a specialized box. A computer on the other hand is
quite a general purpose system, which can do pretty much what you want.

-jp

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 14:51:04 -0700, RayzrShrp wrote:

> Currently I'm operating slack9 on a pentium 133 with 48 megs of RAM
> and a 20 gig hd. My question is which is better running slack9 with 2
> nics as my firewall or just keeping the netgear router doing ip
> natting with port forwarding for my services. I realize with using
> slack with 2 nics I can control every single aspect of the firewall
> rules & do fun stuff like packet scanning into my network but are
> there any other pros? The router seems to be doing a good enough job
> and I guess I wonder which is going to be more secure in the long run.
> Now granetd I'm semi-new to linux but not really and I understand that
> my .conf files and scripts are ultimatly goign to control how secure
> the slack firewall would be. How secure is the netgear router vs a
> well configured slack firewall? Is one gonig to be faster then the
> other
>
> suggestions, ideas, insults welcome


greets


i am currently running what most people would consider overkill, but hey i
got the hardware might as well try to use it.

I had my router/firewall set up on a dual p2 300 hp kayak with 256 Mb
server memory.

Until I reinstalled slack 9.0 on it and I am havign all these issues, but
if your electric bill is an issue buy one of those linksys/netgear boxes
if it doesn't bother you that much set up that pc to do it all.

it took me days to recompil thinking all the problems was my nics, but
instead it was my dual cpu config that kept getting bothched, until I
found this site
http://www.madpenguin.org/article.ph...&mode=&order=0

Now tghe only problem is tryign to figure ot why all of a sudden i can't
connect to my dsl after all that time.
i know the dsl works because my my slack laptop is connected directly to
it.

....pardon the ramble.....

enjoy

"LittleJohn" <Littlejohn@DeleteMe.knology.net> schreef in bericht
news:vfgcuhcubg6p77@corp.supernews.com...
> chello wrote:
> > iptables --add INPUT --source microsoft.com --jump DROP
> > iptables --add INPUT --source doubleclick.net --jump DROP
>
> Yes, but what I want is:
> iptables --add INPUT --source *microsoft* --jump DROP
> iptables --add INPUT --source *doubleclick* --jump DROP
> iptables --add INPUT --source *ads* --jump DROP
>

iptables --add INPUT --source 207.46/16 --jump DROP # microsoft
iptables --add INPUT --source 216.73/16 --jump DROP # doubleclick

is that more general?



Joost