Day by day, the threat to your personal online security increases as spyware, malware, and viruses are distributed to hijack your computer, steal your identity and destroy your data. For many, a common firewall and anti virus software just doesn’t cut it, and instead, you load your system up with a million spyware and virus scanners and removing tools which eat away system resources and burn a hole in your wallet. If this sounds like you, or you are an avid computer security geek like myself, then SmoothWall Express 2.0 is exactly what you are looking for.
What is SmoothWall Express 2.0?
Developed late in 2003, SmoothWall Express 2.0 is an open source Firewall Linux distribution. SmoothWall is, in my view, impressively user friendly, extremely configurable, and outstandingly secure. Additionally, SmoothWall Express 2.0 doubles as a router being able to support and provide protection to an entire network of computers. SmoothWall is intended to be installed on a computer of it’s own (I will discuss minimum requirements a bit further on) and act only for providing protection to the computers connected to it, meaning you will need a second computer to take advantage of SmoothWall Express 2.0 and its features.
Setting Up Your Smoothie
As noted above, SmoothWall Express 2.0 is a Linux distribution, and should be installed as the only Operating System on the computer you desire to use for your firewall. In my case, I was able to use an older PC which was laying around collecting dust. Fortunately, SmoothWall does not require a top of the line computer to function efficiently and be impervious to outside attacks.
Minimum System Requirements For SW Ex 2.0:
- 64MB RAM (recommend)
- 150MHz CPU or better
- 1Gb Hard Drive Space
- 2 10/100 Network Interface Cards (NIC)
- CDROM Drive
- Monitor (only needed to install)
- Any Video Card
- Any Keyboard and Mouse
Other Requirements :
- CD-RW and a Blank CD (to make installation disk)
- Two Patchcords
- Internet Access (obviously)
First – Download SW Ex 2.0 and Make Bootable Install Disk
I recommend downloading from SmoothWall’s site HERE and keep track where you download this file as you will need it to make the bootable installation CD. The downloaded .iso file should be named “smoothwall-2.0-manuals.iso”. Once the download finishes, open up your CD burning software and search for the tool used to burn an image to a disk. Find the file for SmoothWall Express 2.0, and proceed with burning it to a blank CD. When the burn completes, move onto step two.
Second – Installation Of SmoothWall Express 2.0
Okay, now that you have your installation CD ready you will have to turn on the computer you wish to install SW Ex 2.0 on, and when prompted to enter BIOS, press the appropriate key (most likely F1 or DEL). Within BIOS, arrange the boot order of your drives so that the CDROM drive boots first, then save the settings and reboot with the SmoothWall Express 2.0 CD you made earlier in the CDROM drive. If everything worked correctly, you will be greeted with a SmoothWall splash screen which will ask you if you want to continue installing.
**Note – Installing SmoothWall Express 2.0 will remove all data on the hard drive since this is a fresh install of an Operating System. If there is something you would like to keep from the hard drive you need to cancel the installation and back up that data otherwise it will be erased forever if you continue with the installation
Now that you have decided for sure to dedicate your PC for SmoothWall Express 2.0 you will begin a very simple and straight forward installation process. Tap “OK” on the first two menus, then select to install from CDROM and hit “OK” and “OK” again when it asks you to insert your SmoothWall CD. Follow the installation prompts until you get to a menu for configuring your network. Here you will select which interfaces you will use and SmoothWall will probe your computer to look for your NIC and install the appropriate drivers.
The GREEN interface is what is used for your LAN and will be applied to the NIC which runs from your SmoothWall box to your computer. The RED interface is what is used to connect your SmoothWall box to your modem and the Internet. In most cases you will only need to configure a GREEN + RED interface, however there is an ORANGE interface which is used to set up a DMZ (de-militarized zone) and requires the use of an additional NIC. For this tutorial I will describe how to set up a GREEN + RED interface.
At this point you should be at your basic network configuration page and now we will configure the GREEN interface. Select the option for the GREEN interface from the menu and allow SmoothWall to probe your computer to find a NIC. When it detects one you will be asked if you want to use that card for the GREEN interface and after agreeing, the appropriate drivers will be installed. You have the option of manually configuring the IP and Subnet Mask for your GREEN interface or leave them assigned as 192.168.0.1 and 255.255.255.0 . Personally, I use the standard IP and Subnet Mask for simplicity. However, for increased security, you may want to use a different IP and/or subnet range.
Continuing with the network configuration we need to set up the RED interface. Select the RED interface option from the main menu and let SmoothWall probe your computer until it finds your second NIC. After it detects your second NIC allow SmoothWall to install the driver for it and continue on with the installation process where system files are copied over to the hard drive. This should only take a few minutes. When installation is complete your CD will eject, and you will be asked to remove it.
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