Mike Sensney wrote:
>
> Imagine you are a Windows user. :-)
Not hard - but now I've got VNC on my NT box and a vnc server on the
Linux box :-)
> You have heard about firewalling, have a
> spare computer, and want to protect your home/office network. You don't
> know RedHat from YellowDog and don't really care. You don't have the time to
> read all of the docs. You don't want to have to make all sorts of choices.
> You do have a particular need and want to fill it.
I would strongly protest to such a person that if they want to run a
firewall, they better know something of how it works. You don't buy a
security system without knowing how to use it - or shouldn't. You
don't buy a lock without knowing how to use a key. If you don't know
how to use and configure the firewall, you'd be just as safe not using
it (in my opinion).
What most people want - a blackbox that you plug in and turn on and
forget - it just isn't going to happen:
1. Too many variables: do you want a VPN? Shell access? Proxy?
DMZ? Web Cache? Web server? SNMP? Web statistics? Name services?
DHCP?
2. Insecurities are constantly being discovered - a solid protected
system will be a security risk in six months.
Something to point out: point #1 - how many non-computer people would
understand ANYTHING in that sentence? If they're not willing to
learn, they're in real trouble.
> What I personally would prefer is a page where a more experienced person has
> laid out a series of choices for me like:
>
> Dial Up
> DSL with PPoE
> DSL with DHCP
> RoadRunner cable
>
> Each entry with a description to help you choose. Maybe broken down by
> geographical area like US/Canada, Europe, Australia, etc. Click on a link
> and it takes you to the required how-to for implementing it.
Ah, but you just said that they don't have time to read HowTos :-)
Anyway.... that's my point. However, this point of view shows my
biases too - I do NOT want someone to tell me "push that button, it
works" - my first question then is "WHY does it work?" and "HOW does
it work?" Unfortunately, this gets me into trouble when I start
explaining technical stuff to non-technical people :-)
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