Re: linux firewal question (newbie)

["Kevin T. Shivers" <kshivers () tis com>]

At 06:25 PM 10/13/98 -0400, HASSAN.KARIM () chase com wrote:
> It seems that a port to Linux would cost NAI a couple of million bucks! NAI
> would need quite abit of pressure to decide to put a $2 Million effort into
> a free OS! Would the effort really be worth it? I mean, companies pay
> $10,000 to $30,000 for Gauntlet.... If someone were interested in paying
> $30K for a firewall, I'm sure they wouldn't mind paying $300-$600 for BSDi
> which is fully supported (and has a sweet TCP stack if I might add).

I guess I didn't make it clear... this is *not* an NAI undertaking. It
would be an undertaking by some of NAI's summer student hires, who don't
have the money to spend on things like BSD/OS. This *not* be done on NAI's
time, it would be in the spare time of the studen summer hires. And, right
now I doubt it will happen since people have so much other stuff to do
right now. 

> If Gauntlet were supported, could someone clue me in to a reason why
> someone would use Linux w/ Gauntlet as opposed to BSDi w/ Gauntlet? If
> you're looking for more apps.... although BSDi has a slew of apps....
> should you really be using your firewall for anything other than network
> firewalling?  Just a thought.

The only thing I can see that would make it worthwhile is that patches and
upgrades come out faster. This can be both good news and bad news, but for
something like the latest buffer overflow or DoS attack, this can be good.
BSDi's turn around time is OK, but the Linux project has patches out way
before any commercial OS ever can or will.

> If you are really interested in it... talk to the Gauntlet Product Manager
> at NAI. Im sure he wants to hear about it.

Me personally? I'd rather not bother. NAI is too dedicated to the NT
platform to bother with a free OS. If this was still a TIS undertaking,
sure I might talk to them, but I have other things to do, and there are
other options to be used for a firewall.

> -Hassan

kts.