I am on Suse 8.2 running Suse Firewall 2 connecting from my Linux box straight to the Motorola SB5100 'Surfboard' cable modem.
I am very comfortable with this solution, but I do : - apply all the security patches. - frequently monitor my logs and disk usage - maintain good admin practices (e.g. no default or guessable passwords to root) - never disable the firewall while connected to the internet In other words, practice the standard things that one should. On top of this, I don't know of a good dist. that does not tie down security settings pretty throughly by default these days. When not in use, one can always switch the modem to 'standby', that is, if one is not running a web server (although I probably would run a webserver on a different box anyway) On Friday 05 March 2004 12:00, you wrote: > Thanks all, some good info there. > > In this day and age I know it is a 'really good idea'(tm) to run some > kind of seperate firewall box... But for years now I been running open > behind a ethernet adsl router. At first I thought my system was > invincible (coz its linux, right? ;) ) but later realised it was because > of NAT. > > So my question is, exactly how bad would it be if I connect the cable > modem directly into my linux box? of course with some pretty agressive > iptable settings (or something) > > or should I start scrounging for parts now ;) > > Nic.
