Here's my $0.02
I went to their web site. Nice web site. Software is totally free for
non-commercial use (but you can kiss support bye-bye too)
1. To install their software - it is, in essence, a full-up linux
install. You have to download an .ISO containing a CD image for their
product.
2. Their system requirements mandate a pentium or better, 1.5 gigs HD,
and so forth.
3. Apparently, you can tune this thing fourteen ways from next Sunday.
They advertise statefull packet inspection, etc.
Bottom line: A very sophisticated piece of work - but it looks like a
much higher maintainance item too.
If you want a totally wacked-out firewall that you can tweek-and-tune to
your heart's content (like someone puttering with a sports car) then
Astaro is for you.
If you have a very demanding commerical environment that requires a lot
of granular control, and / or sophisticated logging (which you pay for
with complexity) - this is for you too.
If you want a secure, NAT enabled firewall / gateway that will work on a
smaller "throw-away" or obsolete system, requiring little to no
intervention. STN is it.
I like the fact that it runs in a very tiny footprint, I start it and it
works, and is as secure as I will likely ever need, (all TCP and UDP
ports shut down). Maybe someone else nees a lot of logging - or access
control, or whatever. In that case, there are bigger systems out there.
(I ran Microsoft Proxy Server II for a while too - you can tune it to
do anything - but as a result it did almost nothing!)
For the "typical" home user or small office/home office (SOHO)
environment - I'd recommend STN any day of the week. (and I have)
People ask me about the "penalty" for using this on a "weak" system. I
tell them "There is no penalty..." I have this running on a 486DX
(actually a P24 overdrive chip) with a 40 mhz bus & 32 megs mem, and two
10-base-t cards. As hard as I drive this thing - I saturate the cable
connection I am on long before the STN box.
Let me repeat that: The media you are connecting to, be it phone, DSL or
Cable, will run out of room LONG BEFORE the STN box gripes. In fact,
you'd probably have to be on damn near giga-bit before you saturated the
STN box.
Depends on what you want. If you want to tinker, D/L the latest Red Hat
ISO's, and build your own. If you want to work, and work well, you want
this.
Jim
Robert Bartels wrote:
> All,
>
> I've happily used STN for almost 2 years now. It has served its purpose
> really well. Unfortunately the Authors of STN have decided to let their
> project
> die in this ever changing world of router/firewalls.
>
> If you wanna try out a real full featured, www interfaced firewall
> then goto http://www.astaro.com and check out the evaluation version of
> their commercial firewall. As far as I can tell the evaluation version
> is fully functional ~freeware..unless you use it for commercial use..
> Prices for it are alot more $$ compared to the low price of STN but...
> If you like playing with yer router you gotta check this one out.. its
> too cool!
>
> I am in no way affiliated with astaro.. don't even speak german... But
> the
> message board activity and wealth of networking knowledge gained by
> reading
> the archives (http://www.astaro.org) makes 3 year old STN and this list
> even
> less interesting..
>
> If you have any questions on migrating from STN let me know :P
>
> Bob
>
> RIP STN
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 3:32 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [STN] 2.2
>
>
> On Fri, 09 Mar 2001 17:24:18 -0800, you wrote:
>
> Sorry, guys but I gave up on waiting for v2.2 and have switched to
> FreeSco.
>
> A great shame because I liked STN.
>
> >When is a new version due?
> >
>
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