[CLUE-Tech] LinkSys vs. spare PC

[Match Grun]

I have been using this LinkSys firewall for 3 months. It really
works great. This firewall can do port forwarding (for example,
port 80 is redirected to machine A behind firewall, port 23
redirected to machine B, etc).

However, ports cannot be renumbered (I don't know the technical
term for this one) when forwarded. Some of the more sophisticated
firewalls can do this. I know the Cisco 675 DSL router allows
incoming port 80 to be mapped to, say, port 9000 and forwarded
to a specific machine. Also, the NetMax firewall suite claims to
be able to do this, but I could not get it to work.

The LinkSys firewall even does DHCP, if you need this feature. All
configuration is done by means of a web interface which is real
simple to use. This box does have some limitations, for example,
it appears that there are a maximum of 10 ports that may be
forwarded. DHCP only allows one block of addresses in the pool.
These are probably not serious limitations.

For $125, the LinkSys is well worth the price. There is a lot less
hassle  setting this up compared to installing something like
NetMax or building your own firewall. Note that NetMax is a
dedicated solution. Even though it is based on RedHat Linux, there
is very little other software that can installed on the box. If you
want an educational project, then building your own firewall would
be fun.

Match

On Fri, 13 Apr 2001 18:27:33 -0600
Roger Frank <rfrank at rfrank.net> wrote:

> At MicroCenter they sell a box for about $100 that seems to
> do everything that my spare PC with ClarkConnect does:
> firewall, masquerading, etc.  I host www.linuxclassroom.org
> on the PC in my basement and I thought I couldn't do that
> behind an off-the shelf firewall.  But I installed a LinkSys
> box between my brother's DSL and his two computers
> and I discovered that I could have specific ports go through
> to specific PCs on the inside network, so I could 
> 
> So my questions are these: is a PC with a Linux-based firewall
> any better or any worse that a commercial product such as
> the LinkSys?  Is there anything that would make me choose 
> one over the other?  Does the commercial box do everything
> that the Linux PC does, and do it properly?
> 
> ---
> Roger Frank
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