Date: 29 Sep 1998 09:28:48 -0400 From: Chris Shenton <cshenton@uucom.com> To: Joe Raine <questav@questronix.com.au> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Firewall? Message-ID: <86lnn3m4j3.fsf@samizdat.uucom.com> In-Reply-To: Joe Raine's message of Tue, 29 Sep 1998 14:13:22 %2B1000 References: <199809290400.OAA20985@oznet14.ozemail.com.au>
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Joe Raine <questav@questronix.com.au> writes: > 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!!). Snicker. I set up an ISP with a pair of P120-class boxes. It's currently serving about 1000 users with dial-in authentication (RADIUS), web, mail, DNS. They've been running almost two years now with no problems, and little intervention. > 1. Is the learning curve horrendous for someone who is only versed in DOS > and Windows? Depends on how much time you have to put into it and how interested you are in learning. If you don't have enough time to learn it yourself, you should find someone who does, or at least have rapid access to a UNIX/net geek. The biggest obstacle is the MS small-world (small office LAN) mindset: the net's a big place but it's nice that IP plays well on the LAN and WAN. > 2. Will there be any compatibility problems integrating a FreeBSD machine > into a Win'95 peer-to-peer network? Check Samba, free from the ports collection, if you're intersted in file/printer sharing. There's a Samba book now which you might find helpful. > 3. Does FreeBSD have a firewall built-in or is that available as a > similarly-priced add-on? Same thing: check ipfilter and ipfw. > 4. We want to offer on-line transaction facilities eventually. Is FreeBSD > up to the task, especially in regard to security issues? Like cash transactions? Or real-time high-volume stuff? For the former at least you might check the port of Apache+SSLeay. Security and robustness are two major factors in my use of FreeBSD. > 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. Just make sure you set aside enough time when you're setting this up and learning. The lists are good resources. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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