ClearOS vs Smoothwall

[Asha'man X]

Hi everyone

Quick question about ClearOS vs Smoothwall. I have a network that is currently protected by Smoothwall, but I can't get Windows 7 activated through it. No matter what I've tried with setting exception IP's, switch off the proxy, make sure the Microsoft domains unfiltered etc, it won't work. However, plugging in the iBurst device works first time. I don't have this problem at work where we have Ubuntu setup, so the problem is related to Smoothwall.

My question is, would ClearOS be a good replacement for Smoothwall? Obviously I don't need most of the features in it, just the firewall and filtering sides. I like the look of the web interface as well.

Any opinions?

 

[aloysiuscarl]

I had rocking smoothwall with 1.6ghz P4, 512mb RAM and a 10gb HDD. box before the tomato router. Great options, no problems. It got retired along with all of the incandescent light bulbs in my home when I decided my light bill was too high.

 

[w1z4rd]

Short answer to your question. Yes.

Long answer, its a nice solid platform thats easy to admin and very functional.

 

[Anthro]

I had rocking smoothwall with 1.6ghz P4, 512mb RAM and a 10gb HDD. box before the tomato router. Great options, no problems. It got retired along with all of the incandescent light bulbs in my home when I decided my light bill was too high.

LOL,nice Google skillz buddy http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showpost.php?p=355955&postcount=2

To the OP, I have been using Smoothwall on my home network for about 4 months now - no hassles.
Although, not as complex a setup as yours..

 

[The_Unbeliever]

I also had issues with smoothwall and iburst. It's the MTU setup which is the fly in the ointment.

Use ClearOS (which w1z4rd suggested) - if it works for you, then use it. Plus, you can use it as a file server should you need one.

 

[Jab]

Do ClearOS have anything similar to Update Accelerator on IPCop?

 

[Asha'man X]

Hi again everyone. Posting this from the network I mentioned.

Smoothwall actually runs perfectly well with iBurst, has done so since I put it in here about 2 years ago. It's running on an old Celeron just fine. Like I mentioned, the only problem is trying to get Windows 7 activated though it, as well as trying to use the Microsoft Volume Activation tool, for the rest of the network. I'm downloading ClearOS now to see if it lets the Activation through.

Anyway, Smoothwall is a great product, I just don't have the skills needed to do in depth troubleshooting on why actication won't go through. If I ever find a work around though, I will post it here.

 

[Grep]

Its a squid problem. Just add the following lines to squid.conf and this will bypass the squid filter.

acl windowsupdate dstdomain windowsupdate.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain .update.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain download.windowsupdate.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain redir.metaservices.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain images.metaservices.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain c.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain www.download.windowsupdate.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain wustat.windows.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain crl.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain sls.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain productactivation.one.microsoft.com
acl windowsupdate dstdomain ntservicepack.microsoft.com

acl CONNECT method CONNECT
acl wuCONNECT dstdomain www.update.microsoft.com
acl wuCONNECT dstdomain sls.microsoft.com

 

[Asha'man X]

Windows Update isn't the problem, it works fine through Smoothwall, but thanks for the post

Anyway, I tried ClearOS today, and it isn't the answer. While it has a gorgeous web interface, I find that I can't get anywhere with managing the firewall through the web interface. I'm now going to look at IPFire as a possibility. While a person could edit the conf files, this isn't going to help as the person in charge at the school isn't clued up about Linux, so I need something that works.

Now I know why we set up a customised Ubuntu firewall at work, because it offers a flexibility that these specialised distros don't have. I'm tempted to install Ubuntu there as well and use Firestarter, but then it's a mission to set up Squid and filtering again, and Webmin isn't quite as polished as the specialised distro's interfaces. My problem is that my time is limited, so I can't play around forever.

Are there any other good firewall type distro's to look out for, besides Smoothwall/IPCop and the BSD based PFSense?

 

[ponder]

Firewall Builder is a good GUI frontend for generating ip tables, packet filter, cisco access lists, cisco pix rules.

 

[Grep]

well then ebox is probably the answer

 

[yebolinux]

Hi
Yes ebox is a best option it was voted the best Firewall by Linux Format magazine comparing the rest firewall systems (open source), its based on Ubuntu, more info at

http://www.yebolinux.com/index.php/solutions/linux-servers/ebox

 

[DaveLoper]

How's it! First I must disclose that I am on the ClearCenter team and that my post will reflect that bias.

Asha'man X, I'm sorry you did not find the tools you needed to do the firewall configuration that you wanted. The firewall settings are largely done in Network and then Incoming, Outgoing, Groups, DMZ, Port Forwarding, and 1-to1 NAT. There is an advanced firewall module that addresses custom policies which may have helped in your scenario. To add this to ClearOS, click on ClearCenter >> Software Modules. Check 'Advanced firewall module'. Click Go. The new module will appear in Network >> Advanced.

ClearOS was also mentioned in the Firewall comparison on Linux Format and scored the same score as Ubuntu, 9/10. In the end the Linux format team did a tie breaker between the two and chose ebox because 1) it was based on Ubuntu and 2) it appeared to be more open as a platform. We congratulate the eBox team for their efforts to provide open source as an alternative for vendor lock in products and wish them well. ClearOS is a relatively new concept which uses a well established open source based distribution, Clarkconnect. Clarkconnect was definitely not as open as it could be and we have made significant progress to ensure that ClearOS becomes more transparent in all things. To do so, we've completely separated the commercial interest from the open source interest. In fact, they are not even in the same country. This was done as a first stepping stone to making the underlying distro more open to community development. As we work towards later releases we replace existing exclusive systems with ones that are more open to community members. We are also working on a framework to make ClearOS more plug-able and when it is baked properly, we are confident that Linux Format will give us the title position.