Anne Wilson wrote:

Currently I rely on a hardware firewall, but I would like to add a personal software firewall. I know that I will need a slice of time to do sufficient reading to get the configuration right, so I thought that I would browse using Webmin to see what I needed to know, particularly since I don't want to affect the lan.

Unfortunately, though logically, you can't do that until you have installed iptables. I see, though, that it offers configuration for Linux Firewall and Shorewall. If I install iptables and/or shorewall do they come with completely hashed out configuration files, or am I immediately committed to sorting it?

Anne


Just install iptables, and start "rolling your own" rules. There are loads of sites that document how to. You could start off by just replacing one rule at a time from your external router. For example, let's say your hardware does not allow any ping responses. So you write your first rule with iptables to disallow any ping responses, and turn that feature off on the router, so on and so forth until you feel good about your firewall rules, and have a better understanding of what is going on.

And you could do this a little at a time, as you learn new rules....

Because I have always wrote my own rules, since the days of ipchains, I do not know too much about Shorewall, and I would never trust Webmin to handle a vital function like firewalls. Just my two cents worth...

drjung

--
J. Craig Woods
UNIX Network/System Engineer
http://www.trismegistus.net/resume.htm
Let him that would move the world, first move himself.
--Socrates



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