Industrial strength Gateway/Router/Firewall

[nightflier]

There have been some questions lately about Gateway/Router/Firewall computers. I just had to try this one out:
http://www.untangle.com/

Looks like it's Knoppix based, with heavy use of Java. The hardware requirements are high (Think XP), but that muscle seems to be put to good use.

Installation and setup is very easy. It gives you plenty of warning, but in the end your computer will be a dedicated special purpose appliance. The interface is all point and click, and worked out of the box for me. It's probably way overkill for most home users, but I think I'll keep it as a bridge between my network and a test computer for a while to see how it does.

The company says "95% of their product is open source". Not sure what the remaining 5% are, but the free package is extensive.

You have to supply some information (but no verification or call-back) during setup. After install it shows an "Activation Key" in a summary page.

[hata_ph]

look good for any SOHO or home users for setting up a small network with security.
it this a linux version of firewall/gateway/router OS?
do the virus blocker work as normal antivirus software?

[nightflier]

It's Linux based (Knoppix is based on Debian).

It uses ClamAV to scan the passing traffic. Just for kicks, I went to cracks.ru and clicked around some. Soon I could see entries in the log where it claims to either have cleaned or blocked infections. I assume it automatically updates definition files, don't see any other options.

The spam filter seems very effective. It flags your messages by adding [spam] to the title.

[bigpaws]

There have been some questions lately about Gateway/Router/Firewall computers. I just had to try this one out:

There are several the heaviest and most customizable that
install and configure is Smoothwall. IPcop, monowall do just
about as much.

Then there are the minimal like Freesco. I have used most of the
the hardware requirements are not that big none of my installs
have been bigger that a PII 600 and 512 Megs RAM.

The firewall needs to match the situation.

Bigpaws