Secure Computing
With the maturity of the internet and world wide acceptance comes a number of problems. Spam (junk email), pop-up ads, spyware, and viruses, not to mention all the unsavory sites that you just don’t want your children to look at.
The widespread availability and affordability of fast internet including broadband, wireless and cable now also means that you will probably have a permanently available connection to the internet.
This permanent connection, if not safeguarded can be another source of problems. If you don’t have a properly configured firewall installed to protect your network you are not only putting your personal details at risk but also inviting the hackers to utilize your bandwidth (at your expense) for perhaps more sinister deeds.
While it’s true that you should have protection, not everyone is a firewall expert and knows how to install and configure such a device. You could just use a software application based firewall, this will offer some protection, but in my experiences can prove that these can be cumbersome and restrict the internet surfing experience. After all, do you want to be constantly asked if a particular application is allowed to access the internet? I certainly don’t! A lot the time you may not even know what the executable file that’s trying to get access is or does.
Well there is some good news. I am sure, that like me a lot of people have upgraded their PC at some stage and have and old machine lying around doing nothing that just doesn’t have the memory and processing power to run the latest Operating Systems. If not, you can easily find an old low spec machine with a network card on ebay. What for? To build your own firewall of course.
IPCop is a specialized Linux based distribution that allows you to easily build a firewall to protect your network. It is easily installed from a CD and easily configured. Once up and running you don’t need a keyboard, mouse or monitor (though, you may have to ensure that your Bios allows your PC to run without a keyboard and mouse - the Compaq does). The firewall is easily configured and managed from a web browser. It provides all you need to get started and protect your network. It even has a built in VPN (Virtual Private Network) server so that you can remotely access your network from elsewhere.
I have an old but relaible Compaq Pentium 500 with 128Meg Ram that is up to the task and has served me well for the past 4 years without missing a beat. Not bad for an $80 ($NZ) machine.
There are numerous addons (including file server, proxy servers and VPN servers) to add additional functionality to your firewall. Just be careful not to go overboard with the addons, you don’t want to introduce any vulnerabilities unnecessarily, after all the main purpose of this server is to protect your network.
Apart from the core application I do use a proxy addon to provide content filtering and help stop my teenagers from accessing inappropriate sites and content. This has proved to be very effective.
In conclusion, IPCop is a great application that allows you to make an otherwise worthless old PC into an useful appliance to protect your network!
