Smoothwall express 2.0 updates

SmoothWall does not have many quirks. In fact, the only flaw that I could find was in the updates page. As of this version, it is a two-step process. You have to manually download the files to your machine, and then upload them to the SmoothWall machine. Maybe the developers could implement some sort of automatic update that could be configured to check once a week or so, and download and install the updates.

But besides this minor design quirk, SmoothWall is extremely well-designed. While SmoothWall has many of the features required for a home or small office, it is not a fully featured firewall. You cannot implement your own custom iptables rules without dropping to the command line, or perform bandwidth management.

The built-in proxy server is also a simplified version, without the more advanced features a larger business may need. But if you are looking for a firewall with more features than the bundled firewall on your router, and you have an old PC lying around, download SmoothWall and try it.

About Us. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Author: Aditya Nag In these days of always-on Internet connections, a firewall that protects your network from unauthorized access is indispensable. Though most home routers have some sort of basic firewall capabilities, their rules for incoming and outgoing traffic are often basic and arbitrary. An alternative is to run a Linux-based firewall on old hardware, but configuring this sort of setup is generally not easy.

An exception is SmoothWall , a free application you can install on any old machine to convert it to a dedicated hardware firewall. SmoothWall has a friendly interface and more configuration options than standard hardware firewalls. Among the network settings you can control: Port forwarding: This allows you to forward a port from the firewall to a machine inside the green or orange zones. You can use this feature to hide your Web servers behind a single IP address.

If you use software like BitTorrent, which requires that other computers connect to yours through a firewall, you must use port forwarding. External service access: You can access any services running on the SmoothWall machine by opening the ports you need. Granted though, some people are going to need something more than a Netgear router like the guy in the article pointed out — his needs exceeded the capacity of his router. This may be obvious but since the reviewer did not know, I will state it.

He was fired a long time ago, for very obvious reasons. Do you have any sources to back this up? Thanks to osnews for carrying this nice review! The sheer level of choice afforded by those prepared to defend their patch of the Internet is due not only to the rich variety of offerings, but also to the number of talented developers the world over prepared to devote their time to the causes of security and open source.

I obviously love SmoothWall. I almost eat, sleep and breathe it. Others love it too. Others still have their own choices. I personally feel privileged to be a part of this grand endeavour. Yes, Kon, it has felt like a bit of a soap opera at times, but all the best sagas have a bit of drama from time to time!

Funny noone mentioned ClarkConnect. Just this week I installed the new ClarkConnect, the free Home edition. It is very easily configurable, and very extensible. I encourage anyone to give it a try. Its scope goes beyond that of simply a firewall additionaly providing many types of servers , differentiating it a bit from the likes of smoothwall.

I think a solution like ClarkConnect, which provides so much functionality, is the right option for a dedicated box. Has anyone tried sme server used to be called e-smith? BUT… While the incoming firewall protection has been excellent on my Smoothwall 2. Why is the default outgoing firewall protection so lame?

Dick Morell is long gone since march which was a good move by the project and the company. SmoothWall Express continues to be developed and supported and paid for by the company as it always has been. It also has dedicated staff to produce patches quickly. Some SmoothWall Limited employees kindly took the time to get in touch with me and set me straight. I take back what I said in my earlier posts.

I hope that others will read the review and consider using smoothwall based on the information supplied and not on past experiences with certain people. I lump it in with the distros that are very easy to use in default configurations, but very hard to use in non default configs. I also had a lot of problems getting things like weblog software, port opening, etc. Their templating system is asinine. It cna be run off a floppy or hard drive.

We have used Smoothwall at our small business for about 3 months and it has worked perfectly. Billion L adsl router.

Custom Search. Cofiguring Squid [This modification has been verified to work with Smoothwall Express 2. Squid is the web proxy software used on Smoothwall.

Requirements: You'll need: A Smoothwall Express 2. A Web Proxy? Squid is the most popular web proxy software available, and Smoothwall comes with Squid pre-installed. There are a number of reasons why you might want to use a web proxy: Cache Web Page Content: The primary purpose of a web proxy is to cache web content locally. Using Smoothwall's Web Proxy: Smoothwall's web proxy can be configured to run in transparent mode, or in non-transparent mode.

In transparent mode, all web traffic going through Smoothwall will automatically be redirected to go through the proxy, without requiring any proxy configuration in the web browsers on the PCs on your green network.