Re: History and Developement of Firewalls

[Dolphin of The Dolphin's Cove]

Fred,

Thank you very much for the links (and for a prompt and helpful response)... 
they are exceptionally useful, as they are most of what I was looking for.  
I had found your article "Firewalls and Internet Security, the Second 
Hundred (Internet) Years from The Internet Protocol Journal Cisco June 1999 
already and it has been really valuable in establishing some of the ideas 
and foundation for my "paper".

I realized after that my comment about purpose was likely misleading to 
anyone but me, as this is an Intro course (and many people taking it have 
barely used a computer before) and the assignment is a bit of a joke in its 
layout (just my sense of sarcasm kicking in).  They don't really care what 
my answer is, but only that I can show that I researched it, and can use a 
computer to type it up (I'm serious) - which I find amusing.

They don't care what the company is - I can make that up.
They don't care what the product is - I could pick that first and work 
backwards to create a company that fits it if I wanted and they'd never know 
the difference. I didn't like the list to choose from that they gave us (all 
hardware) and got permission to do firewalls, b/c if I have to do a bunch of 
research, I might as well do it on something I like.

The reason I even thought to ask here, is b/c I actually want to do it the 
"real life way"... and then make it condense to the format they want... 
basically like a consultant looking over the company and making several 
recommendations on various products that might work for that company and 
offering up a final choice based on their system requirements, the people 
(programmers in this case) that would be using it and the money that they 
have to spend.

That and type firewall into any search engine and you get ~200000+ sites... 
I've found some good stuff that way - like your paper, and info on Chapman 
and Zwicky's material and Cheswick and Bellovin's stuff, and Marcus Ranum's 
stuff.  But alot out there is crap and alot cannot be referenced.

So... I've basically come to the conclusion that there are <10 people who 
write really good stuff about firewalls. (I know that opens up a big can of 
worms, but if I haven't heard of you... then let me know - I'm still 
reasonably new to the world of firewalls - at least compared to most on this 
list).

And so far the best info that I have found is via the links that have lead 
me to the archives of the discussion lists, like this one and GreatCircle.  
(The 1st link on a simple yahoo search is this list, the 3rd is GC.)

For example:
David Bonn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 14:45:04 -0800
Cc:  "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'"
*Excerpt from original message*

�       How much time do I have to configure and install a firewall?
�       How much money do I have to buy a firewall?
�       Are there external standards I must adhere to (systems handling classified 
information or financial data often have legal and regulatory requirements 
-- finding a firewall company that has experience with these problems would 
make your job easier).
�       What existing systems do I have (network management systems come to mind) 
that ought to interface with my firewall?
�       Are there any interesting hardware or network requirements I have?  (do I 
need token ring networking?  How about DS-3 wires?).

OR

Subject: Re: The BEST Firewall
From: Colin Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wrote:
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 08:53:42 +1000 (EST)
*excerpt from original message*

I recently did an evaluation of firewall software using the following 
criteria (not all of them were my choice)

- major OS
- software/hardware must support a particular package running on the 
firewall
- systems with transparent behaviour only were eliminated
- must support all the functionality required
- must have local support
*****

I have used variations of these in order to help create the company (from 
the ground up) and evaluate my choices.  Which currently include 
Checkpoint/Firewall-1, Conseal Firewall (formerly Signal9, but McAfee is 
only interested in the home user version, not the corporate, so it is still 
distributed by C and C Solutions in Canada - http://www.candc1.com - and we 
buy from them), Blackhole, maybe CyberGuard - but a company I used to work 
for used it and I didn't like it, and Gauntlet - but I know very little 
about it.
Right now I am leaning towards Conseal, mostly b/c I've used it so much, and 
for this imaginary company of <50 people, and the local support issue is 
covered by TSI, and it would be in this company's price range and do 
everything that they would need it to do and like I said earlier� TPTB don't 
care what the end choice is, just that you can justify your choice in some 
way� so not very realistic.

Hope that clears that all up? (Whew� what a novel.)
Thanks again for the help!

Michelle Marcicki
Technology Solutions (TSI) Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Dolphin)
http://members.home.net/jazzdolphin
(TSI's website is under development!  Stay tuned!)
~
"The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one 
hour."
-       Japanese proverb
~

*Original Message follows*
>From: Frederick M Avolio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: History and Developement of Firewalls
>Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 06:46:00 -0500

>At 09:39 PM 11/26/00 -0700, Dolphin of The Dolphin's Cove wrote:
>>So.. I need to do some research for an assignment and need to do a
>>comprehensive investigation of the history and development of 
>>firewalls(and the purpose - of course.. lol).

>You'll find some early firewall papers authored or co-authored by me, and a 
>magazine article I wrote that gives a brief history of firewall development 
>on my web site at http://www.avolio.com/papers.html. Also the last time 
>this question came up I stuck a brief history out there at 
>http://www.avolio.com/fw-history/.

>I don't understand your parenthetical comment. Why would you think you'd 
>not be able to find out what the purpose was?
>Fred
>Avolio Consulting, Inc.
>16228 Frederick Road, PO Box 609, Lisbon, MD 21765, US
>+1 410-309-6910 (voice)        +1 410-309-6911 (fax)
>http://www.avolio.com/
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