[Info-vax] vtAlpha and marketing bullshit

[Paul Sture]

On Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:41:06 +0000, ChrisQ wrote:

> On 12/20/11 16:39, Paul Sture wrote:
> 
> 
>> That reminds me of a firewall solution done by Red Hat(?) about 10
>> years ago.  Boot off a CD, put your config files on a write locked
>> floppy, and it all ran out of RAM.  I seriously thought about getting
>> it until I saw the price (1,000 USD IIRC).
>>
>> While I have since learnt that a dedicated hardware solution is better
>> for a firewall, the principal idea is not forgotten.
>>
>>
> There are quite a few free firewall solutions around. First used Freesco
> around 6 years ago, which boots from floppy. You need to get to grips
> with low level iptables stuff, which isn't so convenient if you are
> making frequent changes to the config. Later examples, such as Ipcop and
> pfsense provide gui form based setup via the the local lan, which is
> much more convenient.
> 
> Currently having a look at fw builder, which is a Linux / solaris gui
> based tool.
> This compiles user entered data down to iptables, which you then copy
> onto the target hardware. None of the above mentioned free stuff will
> run on sparc and really would like to have the firewall running on non
> intel architecture for improved security. It's fun learning about this
> stuff as well...

At the moment, having some fun learning about this stuff is the main 
point for me. I'd forgotten about pfsense but have had favourable reports 
from folks I know.

But my original comment wasn't restricted to firewalls.  I am also 
interested in backup and NAS solutions using various tools out there.  I 
have a feeling Santa is going to bring me extra kit to play in that area 
shortly :-)

-- 
Paul Sture