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Hi Nik, On Tue, 2004-01-27 at 22:43, Nik Clayton wrote: > On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 07:14:12AM +1000, Hilton Travis wrote: > > Nope, it wouldn't. Adding extra functionality to a firewall is like > > asking that your toaster also boil the kettle. It is just not designed > > for that. > > > > Adding NTP will then have people asking for ident, then eventually > > Samba. Believe me, I've seen this happen before. :) > > What I think a lot of these requests are expressing is a need for > either: > > a) A mono<foo> that's not designed to be a firewall, but that is > designed to provide these sorts of 'small' services for smallish > networks. > > NTP > DNS > WINS > Authentication > > and so on, or m0n0wall is a firewall. It isn't a file server, nor is it a BSD distro designed to run as a fish tank controller. I cannot understand why people want to compromise the security of a security device by running additional software on it that is not designed, suited, or even safe to be running on a firewall. > b) A plugin framework that lets people write these things themselves, > safe in the knowledge that the next update isn't going to stomp > all over them. Ever heard of E-Smith, Clark Connect, BSD, Linux, Windows SBS, etc? These are designed to be modular systems that run extremely well behind a secure firewall, work as a modular system, and can easily provide all the functionality that a firewall shouldn't. Personally, I want a firewall that is a firewall. I'll have another internal, protected, server to run these server functions. Security is paramount for a security device, and for your network. -- Regards, Hilton Travis Email: Hilton at QuarkAV dot com Manager, Quark AudioVisual Phone: +61-(0)7-3343-3889 Quark Computers Phone: +61-(0)419-792-394 (Brisbane, Australia) http://www.QuarkAV.com/ Open Source Projects: http://www.ares-desktop.org/ http://www.mamboband.org/ Non Linear Video Editing Solutions & Digital Audio Workstations Network Administration, SmoothWall Firewalls, NOD32 AntiVirus Conference and Seminar AudioVisual Production and Recording War doesn't determine who is right. War determines who is left. |