Accessing a UNIX server through MS Proxy server 2.0

["Joe Ippolito - President SVNPA" <joe () joesnet com>]

As long as the UNIX host is a Socks 4.3 client you can use pretty much any
TCP application including telnet.  You will need the identd service running
on the proxy box and if you are using the packet filtering you will need to
create a rule (as in any other fire wall) to let it through.  You can not do
any applications requiring UDP through the socks proxy or ICMP though any of
the proxy services.  If you need to provide complete services to UNIX
clients try a full service firewall like Firewall-1.  If you want to make a
small pipe look really fast for gobs of WinSock clients and have a stateful
packet-inspection firewall, secure web publishing, etc. etc. for really
cheap use MS Proxy 2.

A book I can recommend is "MCSE: Proxy Server 2 Study Guide", Erik Rozell
et. al., Sybex Network Press, 1998.  It is a bit wordy but quite thorough
and the price is much more reasonable than MS courseware.

The documentation provided with MS Proxy is also very well done.  You need
to have IE 4 and Index Server installed to use it.

-----Original Message-----
From:   owner-firewall-wizards () nfr net [mailto:owner-firewall-wizards () nfr net]
On Behalf Of Itai Dor-on
Sent:   Wednesday, June 03, 1998 12:36 AM
To:     Taylor, Gregory - Open Systems; firewall-wizards () nfr net
Subject:        Re: Accessing a UNIX server through MS Proxy server 2.0


> So, bottom line is you can't proxy telnet (your only alternative is to
> open up to the world!!) and there are some concerns over its FTP proxy.
> If I were you I would buy a firewall  ;-)


I suggest you buy a book on Microsoft Proxy Sever 2.0/1.0 as your
response clearly shows that you don't understand its architecture.

You *can* proxy Winsock 1.1 compliant  applications (e.g TELNET) using
MSP Winsock Proxy module.

As for FTP sessions, you could proxy them using the Web Proxy module
and do a content scan using ISAPI .

What makes a product a 'good firewall' is its ability to reinforce the
company
security policy and to do it well. If Microsoft Proxy server can do that for
your
company then it is not a less secure solution than any other firewall vendor
(e.g Checkpoint, TIS etc.). The tricky part is to know how to define a
security
policy and to map it to technical requirements.


Cheers,
Itai.