OpenBSD based internet security gateway

[Juergen Scholten]

Hello Alan,

thank you for your detailed answer.
I will give ComixWall a chance, because it´s only for my home office and I have not to use a Linux solution. ;-)

In terms of documentation, there exists a ComixWall42SAG.pdf under Downloads/ComixWall 4.2 Release (the last file).

-Juergen


--- Alan DeWitt <alan.dewitt at gmail.com> schrieb am Sa, 4.10.2008:

> Von: Alan DeWitt <alan.dewitt at gmail.com>
> Betreff: Re: OpenBSD based internet security gateway
> An: "Juergen Scholten" <stjs39 at yahoo.de>
> CC: Openbsd-newbies at sfobug.org
> Datum: Samstag, 4. Oktober 2008, 7:48
> On Oct 3, 2008, at 6:34 AM, Juergen Scholten wrote:
> > as an OpenBSD fan I'm using ComixWall by Soner
> Tari since a few  
> > weeks (www.comixwall.org).
> > It is a complete free internet security gateway (ISG)
> based on  
> > OpenBSD maybe comparable with smoothwall etc. At the
> moment only  
> > for i386 and newer hardware because it takes some
> performance.
> > My interest is, does anybody else have experience with
> it and what  
> > do think about it?
> 
> I have played around with it just a little bit, but I have
> not looked  
> closely at the additional software as yet. I have not used
> it in a  
> production environment.
> 
> I love the *concept*. It's the sort of thing that has
> the potential  
> to be easily deployed to a customer, with the possibility
> of handing  
> the keys to a less skilled client to manage mostly for
> themselves.
> 
> Mr. Tari seems to be very respectful of the OpenBSD
> community, and  
> his additional code is under a BSD license. Comixwall
> insulates  
> potential OpenBSD users from having to actually learn much
> of  
> anything, though, which is a big bummer in some ways even
> while it's  
> an advantage in others. (See above.)
> 
> The execution from what I have seen is promising. The web
> interface  
> is well-designed visually and informative. The big
> limitation I have  
> seen so far is poor documentation; for instance, it is not
> altogether  
> clear that Comixwall is installed simply by adding the
> included site  
> bundle at install time. The additional install script
> itself does not  
> give very good feedback. (Both of these are probably due to
> English  
> not being his native language and his presumed focus on the
> gui  
> aspect.) The installer seems a little finicky, and the web
> interface  
> seems a bit unstable.
> 
> I have not looked closely at the settings to ensure
> he's chosen  
> sensible defaults, and I have no idea how maintainable the
> system  
> will turn out to be. Caveat emptor.
> 
> So to sum up I think it's a great idea, and potentially
> a great  
> product, that could use some more polish and developer
> love.
> 
> -Alan