Firestarter

Before the group chose to work with IPcop we looked into several other softwares. This is some info on a really nice firewall program for Linux distributions. I though it may be useful for someone interested in the subject.

Firestarter is an Open Source visual firewall program. The software aims to combine ease of use with powerful features, therefore serving both Linux desktop users and system administrators.

• Open Source software, available free of charge
• User friendly, easy to use, graphical interface
• A wizard walks you through setting up your firewall on your first time
• Suitable for use on desktops, servers and gateways
• Real-time firewall event monitor shows intrusion attempts as they happen
• Enables Internet connection sharing, optionally with DHCP service for the clients
• Allows you to define both inbound and outbound access policy
• Open or stealth ports, shaping your firewall policy with just a few mouse clicks
• Enable port forwarding for your local network in just seconds
• Option to whitelist or blacklist traffic
• Real time firewall events view
• View active network connections, including any traffic routed through the firewall
• Advanced Linux kernel tuning features provide protection from flooding, broadcasting and spoofing
• Support for tuning ICMP parameters to stop Denial of Service (DoS) attacks
• Support for tuning QoS parameters to improve services for connected client computers
• Ability to hook up user defined scripts or rule sets before or after firewall activation
• Supports Linux Kernels 2.4 and 2.6
• Translations available for many languages

The Firestarter status interface shows the state of the firewall and the network at a glance.

The active connections list shows all the connections tracked by the firewall, including traffic routed through the firewall. It can also tell you which program the connection belongs to.








The Firestarter events interface shows intrusion attempts as they occur in real time.

By right-clicking on the event entry and selecting an action, you can control how the firewall will treat a similar connection the next time it sees one.






The policy page allows you to create security policy with ease.

You can enforce both inbound and outbound traffic policy with Firestarter, as well as black or white list traffic and web sites.



-> http://www.fs-security.com/