Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 09:49:11 +0200 From: Johann Visagie <wjv@cityip.co.za> To: Joe Raine <questav@questronix.com.au>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Firewall? Message-ID: <19980929094911.D24711@cityip.co.za> In-Reply-To: <199809290400.OAA20985@oznet14.ozemail.com.au>; from Joe Raine on Tue, Sep 29, 1998 at 02:13:22PM %2B1000 References: <199809290400.OAA20985@oznet14.ozemail.com.au>
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On Tue, 29 Sep 1998 at 14:13 SAT, Joe Raine wrote: > > My company intends to become its own internet provider and I realise that > we have a lot of learning to do! I have had a look at MS NT4 Server with MS > Backoffice, but it costs a bomb and basically crippled an otherwise OK > Pentium 120MHz machine (Boy, did it slow down!!). The slowdown is the least of your worries. :-) In your current situation, you probably can't even imagine the frustration of a Unix admin, used to almost unlimited power and flexibility, faced with the "can't get there from here" Microsoft design philosophy. > I have been getting the FreeBSD newsletters for a while and have to admit > that they go straight over my head on the whole, but some info sticks, so > there's hope for me yet :) Best advice I can give: Set up a FreeBSD box and play, play, play... > 1. Is the learning curve horrendous for someone who is only versed in DOS > and Windows? Yes, the learning curve _can_ be steep. But the steeper the curve upwards, the easier the slide down the other side. It might take you several times as long to become familiar with a UNIX interface as with NT, but once you have done so, you'll never want to exchange the flexibility and power for anything. In my daily job, I'm sometimes expected to perform up to 27 minor miracles a day (it's in my contract somewhere). The very way NT was put together, the very philosopy behind it, would turn some of these minor tasks into week-long programming projects. > 2. Will there be any compatibility problems integrating a FreeBSD machine > into a Win'95 peer-to-peer network? Shouldn't, depending on what you need to do. Samba does a very good job of integrating with NetBEUI networks. There _can_ be problems if you want to (say) share password databases across systems. > 3. Does FreeBSD have a firewall built-in or is that available as a > similarly-priced add-on? It's a misconception that a firewall is a single "thing" in a black box. FreeBSD comes with powerful IP filtering and diverting capabilities. That can be a part of a firewall setup. There are many packet-level and application-level proxy servers available for FreeBSD. That can be a part of a firewall. Furthermore, there are several free firewall "toolkits", as well as commercial products along the same lines for FreeBSD. If you're new to the idea of firewalls, I can sincerely recommend the book "Building Internet Firewalls" by Chapman and Zwicky, published by O'Reilly & Associates. (http://www.ora.com/) > 4. We want to offer on-line transaction facilities eventually. Is FreeBSD > up to the task, especially in regard to security issues? You can configure Apache with SSL support for secure transactions, or you can purchase the (excellent) commercial Stronghold secure server. Various other alternatives also exist. > 5. I would prefer to purchase the CD-ROM version of FreeBSD, is a printed > manual also available? Greg's book. :-) And almost anything published by the above-mentioned O'Reilly firm that seems relevant. > I apologise in advance if I have asked some questions that might be > answered by browsing your website, but spare time is a scarce commodity for > me just now and I have not had enough of it to browse in a productive manner. Still, if you decide that this might be the course for you to take, I would suggest giving the site (or a mirror close to you) a thorough once-over. -- V Johann Visagie | Email: wjv@CityIP.co.za | Tel: +27 21 419-7878 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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