Issue #50 / Jan 2005

Firewalls are becoming evermore sophisticated. Luckily, the tools for managing firewalls are becoming simpler and more accessible for ordinary users

The KDE Guarddog program promises an easy Linux firewall setup with just a few clicks. Guarddog helps inexperienced users secure computers – and even whole networks – against attack.

Firewalls are typically implemented as routers,but it doesn’t have to be that way. Bridging packet filters have a number of advantages,and you can add them to your network at a later stage without changing the configuration of your network components.

Netfilter firewalls create highly detailed logfiles that nobody really wants to inspectmanually. Logfile analysis tools like IPtables Log Analyzer,Wallfire Wflogs,and FWlogwatch help administrators keep track of developments and filter for importantmessages.

When users think about their workstations at home, they often forget about security. But danger is out there,waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting. Shorewall helps everyday Linux users keep the intruders away.

Version 3 of Red Hat’s free community-supported Fedora Core distribution will be available by the time you read this article.On the surface, very little has changed,but under the hood,Core 3 has innovations designed to improve the user experience.We investigated the final release candidate,and here’s what we found.

Suse has taken the lead on competitors Red Hat and Mandrake by releasing an enterprise Linux product that comes with the 2.6 kernel. What do you get with the new Suse Enterprise Linux? We’ll give you a look at the best of what’s inside Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9.