Firewalls and Webmin

[Alex D'Elia]

Hi SigmaX,

* SigmaX <scottclansman at cwazy.co.uk> [050217 17:45]:

> Heya;
> I have FreeBSD 5.3 and need to set up the firewall.  I've never done 
> anything with Firewall on a *NIX system without the help of Webmin, and 
> I'm new to BSD in general.  Webmin gives me an error when trying to use 
> the BSD Firewall module. 
> 
> I tried doing "ipfw sh" to see what was up, and I get "ipfw: 
> getsockopt(IP_FW_GET): Protocol not available"
> 
> I found a post from a while back that said I need to recompile my 
> kernel.  I can't imagine that that's the case for a firewall in 
> general.  I need a firewall... if I can't use Webmin (read: ipfw) I'm 
> gonna need a REALLY good howto :-P. Any help?
> 


first of all I say ( as someone else will do ) that you should post
technical questions to freebsd-questions because this is a list of
discussion about FreeBSD and not about technical problems.
But I can tell you that if you follow the instructions of the
handbook, you will for sure have enough informations to get you going.
The handbook its a really good documentation, not only for FreeBSD
but for a lot more ;^)

And Yes, you need to recompile the kernel if you want to use your
system for a firewalling purpose.
But that's not an hack ..... its preety easy.
I personally find it easyer than in linux ( with all respects ),

I already used ipfw in FreeBSD-4.X and ipf and pf with OpenBSD.
Now that the new STABLE BRANCH 5.3 its including the pf firewall
from OpenBSD, I use that, 'cause I find it really powerfull and yet
nice to configure.

just take a look at the handbook, and you'll find a lot of answers
to your questions.
You find the documentation also on your system: /usr/share/doc/en/books
for english language documentation :)

Have fun with FreeBSD.
Its Free, Powerfull and has a DAEMON in it.
alex



-- 
** acme aka Alex D'Elia
** http://root.acme.com
** priv:: alex at fan.priv.at