IP Cop

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www.ipcop.org

Anyone use (or used) it? Would you or would you not recommend?

I was in the market to get a Cisco router when someone mentioned that IP cop is better if I had an older PC that would be used as the firewall (and I do have a few).

Any advice?

 

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Geek,

I did a <little> research and came to the conclusion that IP Cop and Smoothwall were both highly reguarded.
I am consequently using Smoothwall, and have to say well impressed.

I won't go into any more detail as I don't want you to <suck eggs> but there is more to offer than the conventional SOHO router, although I am not conversant with any of the CISCO routers.

Regards

Si

 

When you say Cisco 'Router' I presume you mean Cisco Firewall (i.e. a PIX)?

There are good and bad points to each type of firewall solution.

Good points of a PIX would be that its a hardened security appliance, dedicated to its task. This leaves it with a smaller attack surface, and (theoretically, at least) makes it easier to manager.

Bad points of a PIX include the fact that its pricier (certainly pricier than putting IPCop on an old PC you may have lying around), can take a bit of getting used to if you're using the Command Line (and you chould be - Cisco's PDM sucks) and, badly configured, will give you a false sense of security.

Good points of IPCop would be that you'll learn a lot more about the actual networking aspects of security than you would just sticking a config on a PIX, its free, and there is a good support base of free users out there.

Bad points of IPCop would include the fact that it sits on an O/S on a hardware platform not specifically designed for the task, it might be difficult for you to get to grips with unless you're familar and comfortable with concepts like Ports and NATing and, umm, well, you might need to buy another NIC

If you;re not sure, or want to check out IPCop before putting it on a machine, you could always stick it on the VMWare appliance which has recently been released!

 

I did some work with IPCop and i liked it alot - but on the other hand im not expert! - yet!