Protect Your Network With an Open-Source Firewall

“It’s the rare IT person who doesn’t sometimes run into a
situation where they are helping a client or organization who has
more IT needs than budget. Often it’s the rule and not the
exception. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need
a decently robust and full featured firewall and have a budget
approaching zero, I have just the solution for you: SmoothWall
Express.

“SmoothWall Express 3.0 is an open source GNU/Linux firewall
which is security-hardened and freely downloadable. By design, it
has minimal hardware requirements and a small footprint. It should
work with nearly any Pentium class computer with at least 128MB of
RAM and a hard disk with a capacity of 2GB or greater. It’ll likely
work with that PC you have sitting in your closet that you’ve been
too lazy to recycle. You’ll want to have at least two network cards
installed for basic use, and three or more if you want to have a
DMZ or incorporate a wireless network. Keep in mind though, that
your firewall’s reliability is limited by the hardware on which
it’s installed.”

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