DSL at last -- but is it secure?

[Net Llama!]

On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, Bruce Marshall wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 December 2002 11:18 am, Condon Thomas A KPWA wrote:
> > Folks,
> >
> > DSL has finally come down my street (we are out of range of the normal
> > process and needed a repeater).  My DSL modem** was delivered
> > yesterday and I'm told the line should go active on Thursday.
> >
> > ** Actiontec Wireless-Ready DSL Gateway that (in theory) includes
> > firewall, router and 4 port switch.
> >
> > I have a small home LAN with two Linux (SuSE 7 & 8) workstations, a
> > Mac (LCIII) and two laptops, one Linux (RH7) and one Win95.  The two
> > workstations are the only machines normally left on.
> >
> > I've been reading all I can find on how to set this up so that all my
> > machines can access the internet through this gateway without
> > (excessive) risk.
> >
> > I'll be hosting a couple of low-traffic web sites on one of my
> > workstations, though, so I need to learn about setting up an Apache
> > server.  I'm also concerned about security loopholes.
> >
> > Any considerations or suggestions for securing my network would be
> > appreciated.  TIA.
> >
> >
>
> The best way (IMHO) to check on the security of your DSL setup would be
> to run something like nmap against it from the outside.  See what ports
> are open..   (any BTW, you'll have to open port 80 for your webserver
> and you need to find out how to do that)
>
> I have DSL from Ameritech and the modem itself was just that: a modem
> with only one port and no firewall.  Adding a Linksys Router added the 4
> ports and a (seemingly) very good firewall...  hopefully your modem does
> all that as well.

I'll add that i've got DSL and it was very easy to setup (uses PPPoE).  If
you're looking for a fast, easy & reliable router/firewall, you might want
to check out FreeSCO, which runs off of a floppy:
http://www.freesco.org/

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman				netllama at linux-sxs.org
Linux Step-by-step & TyGeMo		     http://netllama.ipfox.com