Re: [PLUG] fire wall question(s)

[Jon Galt <jongalt@pinn.net>]

Thanks for all the responses to my questions.  I want to emphasize that
the web server scenario proposed by my friend does not involve a firewall.
I always advocate firewalls (and not the so-called software firewalls,
either), but my friend is proposing just a single computer hooked directly
to a DSL connection with no other local computers and no firewall.  With
that single computer running Linux with Apache listening only to port 80
(no other ports being listened to), is there any advantage to adding a
firewall between it and the DSL connection?  I always lean towards having
a dedicated firewall, but my friend needs convincing.

Thanks for all the good reasons I can give him for the general case, but
I'm wondering if in this particular scenario, maybe he's right?

Wayne

> "But still I suppose that if you had a dedicated server, say
> for HTTP, then your machine has no business listening to
> anything except HTTP coming in on port 80.  If you set it up
> so that it responds only to HTTP on port 80, then a firewall
> between it and the Internet could not add anything but delay. 
> Assuming, that is, that I know what I'm talking about."


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