Can anyone suggest a low priced solution for me to be able to use a a computer on our network to act as a firewall (hardware or software) between my DSL router and the shared hub.

I need it to be able to Drop all packets except IM, http and ftp. I have never seen one, but it would be nice if there was a simple way to do this....

I have seen Mandrake's SNF, but this does not look like it would be easy to setup, nor do I know if it would do what I need it to do.

Thanks

Hi,

Well, before we discuss what firewall, let's find out what operating system you intend on using....Windows or Linux.

You mentioned Mandrake SNF. It sounds like you're running linux on that box? If so, that makes things a bit more complicated because you'll need to decide what you want to do...there are many choices. There are 3 types of firewalls, three types of firewalls---application proxy gateway, circuit level relay, and packet filter.

Well, the operating system is not the important factor here. Finding the right solution is. I currently have 4 running servers. Linux is one of them, as well as a couple Win2k Servers and a Nt4 box. I have about 150 client stations on different subnets.

If the solution were to be software and based on Windows, then I would most likely use the Nt4 box since it is the only one currently connected to all subnets.

If it were a Linux based solution, I would most likely want to bring in an additional box specifically intended for this purpose.

I run web, secure web and email servers and ras connections and have a Win2k domain controller which handles all authentication.

Hope this helps.

Then I recommend you look at hardware appliances. I think that would be best for your application. Unfortunately, their initial cost may seem a bit high, but overall prices today are actually not that bad. For such an extensive network, I think you'd be risking too much using a software firewall that sits in the back of a system.