Smoothwall

Smoothwall - Firewall for network system

SmoothWall Express is one of the open source software that has received high praise from the professional user community, an effective and inexpensive solution when building firewalls for the network.

Some open source, good quality products can still bring trust to users.In addition to the low cost (even free), open source applications often receive significant support from the community.Currently the firewall software SmoothWall Express (SWE) has a version, released under the GNU license.Users can download it for free.

In order to increase multi-device support, SmoothWall Express is designed with the goal of low-profile systems. You can use Pentium-based PCs, with at least 128 MB of RAM, only 2G or more of hard drive space.

Don't worry about configuring or installing applications, even if you're not familiar with Linux commands, but be aware that the firewall's features depend a lot on the hardware system on which it is installed.

Although using a simple interface to install, indeed with SWE, the process of setting up, launching applications is very easy.

First, download the SWE application ISO file, then burn it to a disc.

Reboot the system, select the CD and run the installer, helping you to clean the 'welcome' SWE hard drive. Choose the default parameters is best. However, you can still personalize as you like.

The default 'Half-Open' mode allows most connections to function normally, except for potentially dangerous connections. You can choose 'Open' mode to limit outgoing connections, or choose 'Closed' to 'lock the door', allowing only certain connections to be allowed.

You will need to configure the interface of the network, between blue, red, orange or purple.

The blue interface indicates that this is a reliable LAN. Red is potentially dangerous internet. Orange is your DMZ system (an area separate from the LAN). Purple is a wireless LAN system.

Configuration parameters, SWE settings

Next, you need to choose which network card to assign to each socket. SmoothWall can automatically detect most types of cards. You will need to specify the IP, DNS system and Gateway settings.

In addition, other parameters that need to be configured are Web Proxy, ISDN, ADSL and DHCP.

Finally, you need to set a password for the root, admin, command line, and admin accounts via the web interface.

Although SWE has been able to work smoothly with all the features of the application, you can also explore its hidden potential through a configuration page using the Web interface.

Visit https: // SmoothWallGreenAddress: 441 and enter the previously selected admin password.

You can see that this free product is very easy to configure, with all the features of a perfect firewall application.

SmoothWall supports a range of features, including: Proxy Servers, IDS, Logging, Traffic Graphs, DHCP, VPN, Dynamic DNS, Port Forwarding, Server Health and Access Control.

SWE also supports you to back up or restore previous configuration parameters. Once the old PC system goes wrong, you can easily recover old settings and settings.

Although it's free, it's relatively powerful, but unfortunately, SmoothWall Express lacks the support that commercial products offer. If there is a higher demand, you can refer to the price and features of commercial products also released by SmoothWall itself on the Smoothwall Ltd. homepage.