Re: FW: Firewalls

[Steve George <steve () po i-way co uk>]

Hi,

Rather than asking:

  'with this configuration what firewall software would you recommend'

It's probably better to ask:

  'what level of security do I require'

and then go from that point.  Having specified your requirements you can
then go on to analyse the products available and the equipment you
currently have for integrating into the system.

Sounds like a bit of a cop-out I know but its best to start that way:
and from most vendors you can get a test version to try out.

Even the most straightforward security policy can be difficult to
implement if you're not careful with the way elements interact and don't
know the software well: see a recent discussion of Firewall-1's default
setup recently in this list.  So if you have little experience/time for
firewalls then you should
consider getting a specialist company to help/support  you.  If you have little
money then you should expect to expend a higher level of time to scramble
up the learning curve ;)

I'll add a final, very personal (I'm  sure others will disagree) opinion:
in most cases the flavour of the FW you run is immaterial to the local
sites security consciousness, the local admins ability (product
knowledge/time) and the availability of support/GOOD consultancy.

Best wishes,

Steve
ps I'd remove the win95 machine from being the router or you'll get DoS'd
all day long ;)