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Is WinXP enough as a firewall ?

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by zarazores

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i am gona implement and Internnet cafe over ADSL line with 30 users, one of my colleague asked me why not to implement only XP it will be enough as a firewall as it hass its own firewall system. i have no idea wheather XP firewall is enough for such a network or not, if not why are the weakness of XP as a firewall ??

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by mrjay67

XP may work just fine but its microsoft. Although it will keep the average average hacker out it will not keep out determined ones that know there stuff. XPs firewall is very basic and although easy to turn on and off is not very tech friendly. It lacks configurability. If you have it as an option a Cisco firewall is surely the way to go. However, in a small environment they can be too expensive. You could try a linksys or similar firewall that will have a bit more flexibility than XP. It is more likely that a knowledgeable hacker will find ways around a software based firewall than a hardware solution. If you are just trying to cut financial corners initially than yes, in simplest terms, XPs built in firewall will work. However I would not let this be a permanent solution. Personally I would use a different program altogether like Black ICE or even for free Zone Labs ZoneAlarm. Both are much more configurable than XPs. With a Hardware solution the only device someone on the outside will see is the firewall or router you have configured. Nothing else on the network will be seen if setup properly and therefore can not be reached. Also if you use XP that PC would have to be on 100% of the time to do its job. If you have toreboot it, the network will be down till it comes back up. With hardware they will not have to be turned off as they are not likely to lock up. Certainly not like a PC. I use a linksys cable/dsl router/switch solution that does the job i need it to. They have devices that are designed to be more of a firewall than mine. I hope this helps and provides some info you wanted.

Jason

by lordinfidel

1st- XP is still new.... It has just had it's first service pack. Foundstone has not even released a hacking exposed book on it yet.

what does that mean? If you don't know how to lock down xp as a bastion host, then it should not be used as a firewall.

This is true with any OS and where most people run into problems. The purpose of a firewall is to stop unwanted traffic from both entering and leaving your network.

If the firewall itself posses holes and is exploitable, that in itself defeats the purpose of it being there.

Win2k can be configured as a bastion host and with a free script utility called PktFilter, it can be configured as a basic firewall.

You could even use 2k's native IPSec policies. Employ server so you can do IPForwarding.

Use a linux based solution. Or if your DSL router has a firewall built-in, use it. Especially if you do not have to use a vpn for anything.

Hardware based may be a little expensive.

But I definitley would not trust the protection of my network to XP.

by djent

Despite MS claims XP is a seive by design (see UPNP at grc.com) and MS is plugging holes one at a time. Get a hardware firewall or Linux server

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