dont know the first thing about setting up a firewall

[crowdaddy00]

i need help with my linux mandrake 8.0 machine. i have no idea what firewall to use or where to find them. i was told that ipchains might be the best firewall to use. what do u all think? where can i download ipchains? i cant seem to find a place with the newest version of it. thanks for any help for this newbie jumping ship

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Mandrake tends to set up a lot of stuff for you when you do an install.

http://grc.com/intro.htm

If you go to the above address, and follow the 'shields up' links, you will be taken to a page that will allow you to have your machine 'port scanned' and it will report the results to you. Note Gibson put this thing up to check out windows based machines, but it is still a useful tool. If your ports come back as stealthed, then you know at least that those ports are being 'firewalled'.

[crowdaddy00]

i went to the site and it said my ports are closed, not stealthed.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/doc.../bastille.html

Hopefully, this should explain it, however if the package was not installed (by default) with your installation, you may have to hunt through the .rpm files, in the rpm directories of your cds, and install the package(s) I think this is a front end for the ipchains files that were installed by default.

[Hassmaschine]

Go with iptables... newer and updated more often. A few more options nowadays too...http://www.netfilter.org/
Need it compiled into your kernel though...

[crowdaddy00]

i tried to install ipchains and iptables from my 8.0 cd and it will not install. is there a place i can downloaded it from? also, is there a website that will explain how to set up either bastille, iptables or ipchains? thanks a lot

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Were you using KDE's kpackage to try to install the .rpms ? ( I don't know your level of expertise, but I've found it to be the cleanest way to install them). Also, if you're new to this, make sure you don't already have some of this installed, by opening up a shell and typing ip then hitting the tab key to see all the commands beginning with ip that are already installed. ( Just trying to cover all the bases here, since you didn't mention what the error was that you encountered, trying to install.

[crowdaddy00]

ok. i have found kpackage and i do have ipchains installed. how do i set it up?

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Right now, I wish I had a good simple answer for you as to what the best way to go is for Mandrake 8.0. I don't have a machine running it. Ipchains, as well as iptables are both services that would have to be enabled in the mandrake control center ie:
In 8.2 it's under "What to do" -- Administer your system -- Mandrake Control Center -- System -- Services.

At least that is where the services are set up to start at boot. They would require setting up the scripts, the rules or configuration data, for the service. On a scan of an 8.2 system set up for workstation, it had both ipchains as well as iptables installed as services, and neither was set up to run at boot time. The links I checked for 'ipchains' were all about 2 years old as a search with any internet search engine would turn up. Hassmaschine is correct in that I'm currently seeing more data on iptables firewalls. I'm trying to find a quicker answer for you, and you may find it here :
http://linux.tucows.com/internet/firewall.html

You may also already have iptables installed, too.

[crowdaddy00]

ok. i uninstalled mandrake and reinstalled it. this time though, i installed in the expert mode and installed individual packages. now i have ipchains installed but cannot get iptables installed cause i need the newest kernel. i have no idea how to install a new kernel. good news is that i went to pcflank.com and grc.com and they both said i was stealthed in my ports. i didnt even set the firewall up. weird, but i'm not complaining. thanks for all the help so far guys. now i got another question, if i wanted to turn the mandrake pc into a server to handle my emails and other things for my other pc, can i just install the packages i need to do this in mandrake? i am on dial-up and have only 1 other pc besides the 1 mandrake is on. i know it might not sound logical to do this but i like to learn new things and try out stuff. i think it might be very sweet if i can get it to work. also, if i do this, will this be safe to do? as in having a firewall already installed on my other pc, having mandrake act as a server/firewall type even better for only a peer 2 peer network? thanks.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Basically, what you would be doing is internet connection sharing. In the newer versions of Mandrake they have it in the Mandrake Control Center, in the form of a wizard. I don't know on 8.0 You don't want to set up the Lin box as a mail server on this type of install.

[crowdaddy00]

ok. it was worth a shot. i guess if i want to do this, i have to reinstall and set it up as a server then. i wont do that for awhile till i get use to linux first. thanks for the help on this. now its time to explore. i hope i can learn this OS for the fact that i think its more stable and has more security than windows. plus it has more cool features to mess with! thanks again

[crowdaddy00]

i just cant seem to understand the concept on iptables. i searched everywhere and read as much as i could and still cant figure out how to setup iptables! i tried installing guarddog 2.0 but it kept crashing and not working right. i just about to give up on the whole linux thing till i can get some money to invest in some books and a newer version of linux. thanks for all the help.

[OOPS!]

Crowdaddy,

8.0 includes a built in firewall called TinyFirewall. If you go to the Mandrake Control Center and click on the Security icon it will walk you through the setup.

Tiny will give you a basic firewall similar to ZA. If you want a more detailed firewall I recommend Bastille, which is also included with 8.0.

OOPS!

[crowdaddy00]

i tried that and after setting it up, it says i already have a firewall installed and that i should uninstall it first. i think im going to give iptables another shot. how do i figure out if iptables is configured in my kernal? i know that i have it to boot on startup but everytime i look at it in the startup config menu, it wont start. i hit the start button and it wont start up. but when i hit the stop button, it says that its flushing the iptables. very weird to me. i think i figure out how to use iptables. i just type the commands in the console as root and then save it. is that right? if not, can someone give me an idea on how to type it in the console and then save it to the iptables file and start it up? thanks