The firewall should definitely be dedicated for maximum security. If you run a mailserver on it, and someone breaks in through the mailserver, then they would have full access to your network. Check out http://www.linuxrouterproject.org. You can use one of their boot floppies to make a firewall. You can customize the floppies also to add or remove features. You don't even need a hard drive in the machine with this. Jay -----Original Message----- From: andy at theasis.com [mailto:andy at theasis.com] Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2000 11:27 AM To: 'tclug-list at lists.real-time.com' Subject: RE: [TCLUG] To firewall or not to firewall... > > That brings up the next question. Do I need a dedicated firewall sitting > between the 675 and my switch (I ordered a NetGear FS105 from mwave.com > yesterday) or can I use the server that I plan to use for Web and email and > put two NICs in it to achieve the same effect? (At least I think that second > option would work.) > > Comments? Depends on how strict you want your fw to be. For maximum protection, firewall should be dedicated. In fact, make as much of it as possible read-only. You can find immense amounts of stuff online, but if you like books, get Linux Firewalls by Robert L. Zeigler (New Riders). If nothing else, go to a bookstore and read the Intro and first chapter for some philosophy. Andy > > -Tim _______________________________________________ tclug-list mailing list tclug-list at lists.real-time.com https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list