Firewall or not ...

[Roland Smith]

On Wed, Sep 21, 2005 at 09:05:36PM +0200, Kiffin Gish wrote:
> I have installed FreeBSD 5.4 on my Dell Inspiron 8200 using WiFi to 
> access the Internet.
> 
> My question is what are the pros and cons of running a firewall on my 
> client, e.g. is it really necessary.

A pro would be that a firewall enables you to keep people from accessing
your laptop remotely. WiFi connections aren't that secure, unless you
encrypt the traffic. So if your laptop is not a server, use a firewall
to disable all incoming packets except those related to connections you
initiated. That way you can secure necessary services like mail and printing.

> I mean it's not like I am running Windows and have to bloat it with all 
> McAfee, Zonealarm ad infinitum -- or do I?

I've got pf on my workstation. I haven't noticed any performance or
network speed loss while using it. So I can see few reasons not to use a
firewall. If you're not running windows, don't bother with a virus
scanner. Do filter your mail for spam, though.

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith (http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/) Please send e-mail as plain text.
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