On Saturday 12 October 2002 08:24, Rob Weir wrote: > On Sun, Oct 06, 2002 at 08:24:20PM +0100, john gennard wrote: > > I have a small home LAN and decided to protect it with a > > [snip] > > Although I can access the Smoothwall box from browsers on either > > of my other boxes, I can't configure it (not even the ppp > > connection). I asked Smoothwall's list for assistance but got no > > reply from anyone using Debian and can find no help searching > > the net. > > What do you mean you can't configure it? You can't SSH into the > Smoothwall box, or when you do the changes don't stick or... > Just that I can't seem to alter any of the settings that were 'probed' by the program (some of which I know are incorrect), or for example create a ppp profile. There's an error message 'can't change profile whilst red channel is active' and no explanation of how to deactivate it. I managed to do so on one ocassion by going well back inti the install program. I can get into the Smoothwall box from a browser on either of the other boxes, but that's no help. > > Also, I keep hearing stories about the Smoothwall developers > refusing to help people who don't pay them...IPCop > (http://www.ipcop.net/) is a fork of Smoothwall with the express > intent to be nicer to people:) > Yes, I was aware of this situation - of course the pro lobby cry 'foul' > > > I'm now wondering if it might be better to get rid of Smoothwall > > and put a minimal installation of Debian on the firewall box. > > Does anyone have any advice, please? > > This is extremely easy to do. Just do a basic install on the box, > then add the ipmasq package. It'll handle most everything by > default. > See later. > > > There are a number of 'annoying' things with Smoothwall despite > > [snip] > > to Windows - it certainly gives much more info on configuring > > for that. > > I've never used Smoothwall in my life, so I've got no advice for > you here. If you switch to Debian, however, you'll have the help > of all the nice people on this list to back you up. > > > Any suggestions what I should consider doing? Whichever way > > I proceed, I shall need help in configuring my boxes to 'go > > through the firewall' to get email, download data and browse > > etc. > > Another nice thing about using Debian for your firewall is that it > can handle other things for you. If it has the horsepower, you > can run Squid (a HTTP caching proxy) to speed up browsing, a mail > server to forward your mail around, and store it so you can read > it via IMAP or POP3 from work (or wherever), a DNS server to cache > remote lookups and to let you centralise your machine naming, etc, > etc, etc. > Now this is excellent from my point of view - it tells me what is not evident form what I've read elsewhere. I had already made up my mind to do this - I managed to get hold of a new 10Gig drive yesterday which will leave me plenty of space for a large cache. However, I've had an offer of help with Smoothwall via a chat room and shall first take this up so that I can find out why I couldn't get the thing to work. I've managed to find a very comprehensive write-up on how to configure the Debian box as a dedicated firewall and router (prints out at 74 pages) - I've no doubt I'll get stuck somewhere, but as you say I've always the list to fall back on.
I'm very grateful for the response. John. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
