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Linux as a firewall

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by gregs

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We are comparing Linux firewall's to other firewall solutions. Does anyone have any advice for or against a Linux firewall? This will be running in a business-critical environment.

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by nocloo

Linux is cheap and pretty stable. However, it is not supported, and in case you have any problems. You'll have to rely on the support on the net, which is not good for a business critical environment.
It does also require a good Unix admin to maintain the box and play with the filtering rules.
I don't have anything against using Linux as a firewall, it should perform well. It's just the support, and the many security holes that the admin has to keep updated with.

by otto3

That depends on the version of Linux and the firewall being used. There are "commercialized" versions of Open Source OSs, which perform well. However, most of them isn't suitable in business-critical environment for lack of support. You could get a Nokia box, hardened FreeBSD OS with Check Point Firewall-1, which might be what you are looking for. It is also well supported, although I prefer Raptor 6.5. Depending on the number of users, the required transfer speed, the Cisco Pix 520 might be abetter choice.

Otto

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