[CentOS] (OT) Firewall Question

Tue Jan 20 05:22:49 UTC 2009
Kenneth Burgener <kenneth at mail1.ttak.org>

On 1/19/2009 8:28 PM, Jun Salen wrote:
> I am not familiar with the commands of IPtables so I want use tools on top of it. What do you suggest. Can I make test of it inside CentOS on top of VMWare server with only one LAN inteface? I try to use Pfsense, I believe it has easy to understand GUI but it fails to install on my desktop machine to test, maybe due to hardware comaptibility. Kernel panic during boot even after disabling ACPI. If you have suggestion on tools or template for Iptables to suggest or share, please do. Thank you very much.
>   

Shorewall
http://www.shorewall.net/

There are "redhat" RPMs available that work wonderfully on CentOS. It is 
a pleasant step up from managing the iptables manually.


"The Shoreline Firewall, more commonly known as “Shorewall”, is 
high-level tool for configuring Netfilter. You describe your 
firewall/gateway requirements using entries in a set of configuration 
files. Shorewall reads those configuration files and with the help of 
the iptables, iptables-restore, ip and tc utilities, Shorewall 
configures Netfilter and the Linux networking subsystem to match your 
requirements. Shorewall can be used on a dedicated firewall system, a 
multi-function gateway/router/server or on a standalone GNU/Linux 
system. Shorewall does not use Netfilter's ipchains compatibility mode 
and can thus take advantage of Netfilter's connection state tracking 
capabilities." [1]

"Shorewall is not the easiest to use of the available iptables 
configuration tools but I believe that it is the most flexible and 
powerful. So if you are looking for a simple point-and-click 
set-and-forget Linux firewall solution that requires a minimum of 
networking knowledge, I would encourage you to check out the following 
alternatives:" [1]
* kmyfirewall
* firestarter

[1] http://www.shorewall.net/Introduction.html