Firewall distributions

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A firewall distribution is simply a distro whose primary function is to act as a firewall. A typical firewall distro might come on a bootable cd-rom or floppy disk, and enable you to transform a PC into a dedicated firewall appliance.

This usually costs a fraction of a similarly capable off-the-shelf firewall, especially if you already have an old computer. Running Linux, a 486 with 16megs of RAM, worth almost nothing, can outperform a dedicated firewall costing several thousand dollars. It will also be easier to configure if you are familiar with Linux and iptables/ipchains.

List of firewall distributions

Hard drive based

CD based

Floppy based

Commercial

  • ClarkConnect - A hybrid of firewall and SOHO server (mail, fileshare, etc functions). There are paid, closed-source office and enterprise versions, and an open source, gratis version at clarkconnect.org. They all run linux. However, none of these are free (http://www.clarkconnect.com/about/eula.php).

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