 gwionwild colonial boyPremium,ExMod 2001-08
join:2000-12-28
Pittsburgh, PA
kudos:1 | reply to Wildcatboy
Re: Firewall Poll Tiny firewall, nat router with packet inspection enabled and wan access disabled and with various critical LAN ports filtered at the router. Sometimes, I bring up a filtering proxy server, but have found that it slows down the connection enough that I don't find it all that necessary, anymore. Thing I like about running it is that I can set logging and get a comprehensive look at my traffic, short of the trouble of packet capture. Overall, I've found that a NAT router and a good quality packet filter like ZA or Tiny will nail down a home or small business network pretty nicely. Along with a good virus scanner and some means to detect trojan activity, you have a good core system, without giving up any usability or speed. Proxy servers, if desired, will slow down your connection a little bit (or, sometimes, a lot), but they can add a lot of versatility and logging capability even on a stand alone machine. For example, you can set rules in a lot of them that can block all sorts of popups and ads, or restrict access to certain IP's much more easily than editing the hosts file... the price is a decrease in speed, often proportional to the complexity of your filters. Offsite proxies add another dimension to security, but come with dramatic speed penalties, most of the time. Proxying through your ISP or a third party server masks your IP and physically separates you from the machine at the other end... with the trade off being that many offsite proxy services can cut you back to modem speeds, and can restrict the types of content you can functionally view and interact with. Good thread... later on, maybe we could trade notes on security support software. I have a lot of little apps and applets that don't really qualify as firewall components, but which really help out in special situations and maintenance... I'm sure everyone has their own, too, and we might all find some new tools worth having...
--
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on. - Sir Winston Churchill |
