[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: [NTLUG:Discuss]"hardware" Firewall Advice?

[Chris Cox]

MadHat wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-09-18 at 10:18, Daphne and Steve Martindell wrote:
> 
>>What I'm looking for is a "hardware" DSL/Cable-modem Firewall wireless 
>>and wired router, that can also do printer sharing and supports VPN 
>>tunneling. I looked at several this weekend: Linksys, Dlink, ...
>>at Microcenter and Fry's. 
>>I didn't get a good feeling if any of these would setup easily 
>>with Linux,and the drivers for Linux are available.
>>
>>does anyone know which hardware router does all this and works
>>well with Linux?
> 
> 
> The LinkSys and DLink neither make direct connection to the machines
> behind with any thing special.  As in they are hubs on the inside with
> web based interfaces and no driver are needed.  It is just an ethernet
> connection (if you can get on any network, you can work with these
> devices).  The both work fine.  I like the Linksys and it seems to have
> had less issues reported.  I use one at home and have had great
> success.  I know several people that have the DLink and they like it as
> well.  Setup on both is extremely easy and I have used and set them up
> with both DSL and Cable modems.  With DSL using the PPOE works fine as
> well.
> 

I'm also a Linksys user.  I like the product because they seem to care..
they update their firmware with not only fixes, but also features
occasionally.  But be warned, this is not a full blown router... you
will be limited with regards to the combinations of things you can
do with ports and IPs.  For me this is not a problem because
I generally do not expose services... so its a client side protection
mechanism for me.... of course, your Linux servers could also employ
some software based firewalling to augment your security strategy
where the Linksys falls short.

Also.. I believe the Linksys is a switch... at least mine is.. and
not a hub on the inside, so you do get descent port-to-port bandwidth
without the implications that come using a hub... of course, I may
have misunderstood what Madhat was saying with regards to this.

I noticed most recently that the TTL for dhcp is now configurable
in the lastest firmware release, the one I'm currently using does
not have that feature (kudos to Linksys for adding that).