IPCop vs. Smoothwall vs. ClearOS

Endian is also crap.

It's too complicated, cannot get QoS working on my red interface, a bunch of things are buggy, can't get traffic accounting per workstation and there is not enough detailed documentation online. I swear I'm just going to build my own app just with the things I need.

Each of the firewalls I tried had certain things that I really liked, but then didn't have things that I wanted. My favourite out of the lot was probably ClearOS. It is simple, modular and while it didn't have everything I wanted it did a good job of the rest. Think I'm going to go back to ClearOS for now, but install an older version so I can get QoS per workstation.
 
Okay, so I managed to get Smoothwall installed. Turns out my NICs are supported but trying to install from a usb flash drive causes it to bug out.

This is a major gripe I have with almost all of these firewall solutions, 4 out of the 5 I tested did not want to install from a flash drive.

Smoothwall 3 - looked like installation was working fine but doesn't want to detect NICs
ClearOS 5.2 - Allows you to use a flash drive but then you need to download and install via FTP (which hangs the installation).
PfSense - Install boots up but then receives a mount error.
IPCOP - Installation from flash drive only works if the flash drive is formatted at ext3. :wtf:

In my desperation I dismantled my HTPC to get the DVD writer out of it, then installed it to my main desktop to write the CDs then moved it again to the firewall box. I had to take 3 PCs apart to do this! I mean who in this age still uses CDs!

Anyway, rant over and I'm glad I got Smoothwall running as it is the most superior solution so far that I have tested. I installed bandviewX and can now monitor usage on all my machines, can also see what is happening on each workstation visually in real time too which is awesome.

Quality of service is a bit simple and doesn't have too many options but the main thing about it is that IT ACTUALLY WORKS! None of the other firewalls I tried were able to do even the simplest QoS and just failed miserably. At least with Smoothwall I can actually get protocol priorities to do what they're supposed to do.

Thanks for all the input guys, think I'm going to stick with Smoothwall for the time being, if you know of any awesome mods please post here.

I also hope my frustrations vented here help somebody else from the same fate. Just use a CD to install!
 
Will check if the next SWE iteration will allow installation from flash disk - but it should be possible.

Will check my fave mods, but so far I use SARG, Advanced Web Proxy, URL Filter, DHCP mod, performance graphs and full firewall control.
 
I have deployed a number of Endian firewalls at cleints. I find that it works very well. I have tried ClearOS and found it to be too limiting in what you can do in the GUI.
Endian does lack proper traffic accounting back to individual workstations, and I haven't had a need to do QOS, but i found it to be a solid distro providing most of what is needed for a small business firewall.
 
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