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Re: [PLUG] Replacement for Mandrake Single Network Firewall?
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On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 11:58:17AM -0500, Gregson Helledy wrote:
> I've been using Mandrake SNF for about 2 1/2 years.
> The distro's intended functions are as a dial-on-demand gateway
> for a LAN (i.e. doing NAT) and a firewall. I have expanded that to
> acting as a print server and file server.
>
> Generally, I've been very pleased, but Mandrake stopped providing
> updates some 9 months ago. Lately, the machine has been locking
> up every once in a while and I'm trying to decide whether it's worth
> it to try diagnosing the problem or time to upgrade the OS.
>
> I'm leaning towards the latter, but have never had to configure iptables,
> NAT, etc. by hand and am not especially looking forward to doing so.
> Mandrake SNF provides an easy, web-based config tool that handles all
> of the settings for the dialup gateway and firewall. I can handle
> configuring samba for file/print serving.
>
> Do current distros offer something like this, and which would be
> a good one to try? I'm really not up on what current distros offer,
> and most reviews are desktop-oriented. Given equal tools, I'd lean
> towards a Debian-based system.
>
> The machine is a Pentium 133, with 80MB RAM, an ISA analog modem and
> running on a peer-to-peer LAN.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Greg
Greg:
I've been happy, no, very happy, with a product called e-smith, Mitel
SME server, or now, just SME server. It does all that you mention, and
more. It's based on RedHat, has policy based configuration (don't have
to learn the guts of iptables or sendmail for example) , and just plain
works. The iso's are available at contribs.org. Mitel recently handed
off the product to an entirely volunteer community support model since
they have what they need from it.
One caveat... it's install model is, shall we say, agressive? It wants
the hard disk, the entire hard disk. It formats the drive and installs
itself. Now, it gives you plenty of warning but be aware that your hard
disk gets _formatted_. If you need to preserve data then install SME
server on a small disk drive (1 to 2 Gig works easily) and then install
a larger hard drive. Mount partitions of the larger drive where you
need them (for example, /home/e-smith/files.)
HTH
Eric
--
# Eric Lucas
# "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
# And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
# -- John Gillespie Magee Jr.
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