[itdiscuss] Open Source Firewall

Tue Oct 30 19:44:09 EDT 2007

On the surface it looks like a nice package. I really haven’t dug too deep to know beyond that. A statement on the site states “The Untangle Gateway Platform provides access to over 30 of the best open source projects (including SpamAssasin, Vipul’s Razor, ClamAV, and OpenVPN)” which seems to make it not much different than many other products like Endian Firewall. The web GUI is nice but I don’t have enough info to say that it is any better functionally than the others. Most of the other commercial products based on open source roots seem very similar in their basic nature.

I am a little concerned that most of these seem to be based on some fork of the Linux tree other than a stable fork, much the way Ubuntu has done. What this means in the long run I cannot say. My concern would be that what a vendor/developer might do on their fork might make their entire infrastructure incompatible with the next, presumably better, stable Linux release. (By-the-way, if you haven’t yet figured it out, I’m speaking way out of my depth on this!)

Bobby

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of blloyd at buskercom.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 3:53 PM
To: discuss at itdiscuss.org
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Open Source Firewall

Other than the AD piece, what do you think of the firewall?

Bill Lloyd 
IT Manager

5375 Oakbrook Parkway
Norcross, GA 30093
Phone: 770-417-1604
Cell:     404-379-6963

blloyd at buskercom.com

This email and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential and proprietary information.  This information is private and protected by law and, accordingly, if you are not the intended recipient, you are requested to delete this entire communication immediately and are notified that any disclosure, copying or distribution of or taking any action based on this information is prohibited. Emails cannot be guaranteed to be secure or free of errors or viruses.  The sender does not accept any liability or responsibility for any interception, corruption, destruction, loss, late arrival or incompleteness of or tampering or interference with any of the information contained in this email or for its incorrect delivery or non-delivery for whatsoever reason or for its effect on any electronic device of the recipient.

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-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org <discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org>
To: IT Discussion Forum <discuss at itdiscuss.org>
Sent: Tue Oct 30 15:46:33 2007
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Open Source Firewall

I’m looking for solutions like this as well. Unfortunately, Untangle doesn’t look like they will be it. For Active Directory integration, which will give us web filtering management based on user groups in AD, you must use the Professional package at $150/mo. for us. Also, it only integrates with SBS AD, not Windows Server 2003.

Bobby Stewart

Network Analyst

Brentwood Baptist Church

Brentwood, TN

(615) 324-6149 office

(615) 830-0012 cell

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of blloyd at buskercom.com
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 5:52 AM
To: discuss at itdiscuss.org
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Open Source Firewall

Thank you, Justin!  I’m going to give this one a try.  It looks great.  Does anyone know of a sight that rates this FW for security?

(P.S.  I like your title.)

Thanks,

Bill Lloyd
IT Manager

5375 Oakbrook Parkway
Norcross, GA 30093
Phone: 770-417-1604
Cell:     404-379-6963

blloyd at buskercom.com

This email and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential and proprietary information.  This information is private and protected by law and, accordingly, if you are not the intended recipient, you are requested to delete this entire communication immediately and are notified that any disclosure, copying or distribution of or taking any action based on this information is prohibited. Emails cannot be guaranteed to be secure or free of errors or viruses.  The sender does not accept any liability or responsibility for any interception, corruption, destruction, loss, late arrival or incompleteness of or tampering or interference with any of the information contained in this email or for its incorrect delivery or non-delivery for whatsoever reason or for its effect on any electronic device of the recipient.

________________________________

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Justin Moore
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 2:45 PM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Open Source Firewall

On 10/23/07, Kevin Brunson <kevinb at highergroundtech.com> wrote:

        What was it you didn't like about the watchguard management approach?  I agree the method for configuring rules on the older firewalls (each rule with an incoming and outgoing section, etc.) was a little strange, but have you looked at the Fireware interface?  Yours was probably running WFS.  The newer firewalls have a completely re-tooled interface that is much more intuitive and powerful.  I had finally gotten used to the old interface, but now that I manage a bunch with Fireware I hate going back to the older WFS models we still have out ther.

I second this notion. My old Firebox 700 was a piece. However, you couldn't pry my new X750e out of my cold, dead fingers. The admin software for Fireware 9 is similar in appearance, but much more powerful and flexible.

That being said, it's not free. Someone in in the IRC chat (#citrt) recently mentioned Untangle - they appear to have a nifty little operation going. A brief summary (from their site):

*       Commercial-grade open source alternative to SonicWALL and WatchGuard
*       14 integrated apps - use one or all of them
*       Runs on off-the-shelf hardware

 Check it out at http://www.untangle.com/

--
Justin Moore
Chief Tech Guru
Crestview Baptist Church
www.crestviewbaptistnc.org

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