Mark Post writes: >_All_ Linux distributions have built-in firewalls. It's literally >part of the kernel.
I was being pedantic I suppose. Distributors can choose to exclude firewall functions in their particular compiled version of the kernel, and a few do. None of the major distributors (such as Novell) do that. It's more the micro-Linux sort of distributions which are trying to squeeze the kernel into various tiny containers, like embedded devices. Or Gentoo Linux, in which case everything is your choice. :-) >You can choose to use it or not, but it's only a few keystrokes away. >Interestingly, a lot of the so-called "hardware" firewalls on the >market today are actually running Linux under the covers. The >manufacturers have added value by wrapping the firewall capability >with a (hopefully) easy to use human interface so that you don't have >to be an iptables expert to get things set up the way you want them. >(Although there are also open source packages out there that will let >you do similar things, some of which use a GUI, etc.) Yes, there are many configuration interfaces available for the Linux firewall functions. A popular example is Firestarter. Novell's standard YaST interface is also rather good, IMHO. But in fairness the commercial firewall products tend to have features like centralized management, monitoring, alerting, intrusion attempt detection, DoS attempt detection, complex logging and warehouse-type functions, etc. Most or all of that is available somewhere, but these companies may add substantial value by packaging it all together in one kit, testing it, and supporting it as a whole. So "it depends." - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
