hi ya

-- lots of answers ...  my preferences below ..

On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, John Schmidt wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have a couple of old machines that I will be installing Debian on 
> them.  I would like to dedicate one of the machines to a firewall, and 
> the other machine to a mail server.  I have a dsl line with a static IP 
> (with the router acting as a firewall) and several other debian 
> machines that will sit behind my firewall along with my mail server.  I 
> have several questions regarding this:

first thing ...
        - define a set of rules for your network ..
        who can do what to which machines from where

        - what is allowed 
        - all else is disallowed

> 1.  Is it best to not have the firewall doing anything else, i.e. acting 
> as a web and/or mail server, and instead use a different machine for 
> the mail server?  

if you have the spare hardware ... do single purpose machines .. :-)
( or more importantly... spare time for build, setup, config, admin ... )

        - firewall      - presumably only running iptables/ipchains
        - gw            - doing some routing
        - mail          - doing only incoming/outgoing mail
        - pop           - doing only secure pop3/secure imap
        - www           - doing only insecure http
        - secure web    - doing only https -- mportant to separate it
        - www-dev       - where you do your web design before releasing
        - printer       - printer server
        - dns           - dns server
        - vpn           - vpn server
        - ppp           - dailin server
        - loghost       - log everything and anything
        - backup        - backup servers ( at least 2 of um )
        - others

combine functions as you see fit ... like most people
        fw              -- no logins except from inside the lan
        gw + mail + web -- assume it will be cracked ... backup everything
        pop + vpn       -- use different user login for each
                        -- use different userID for ssh login

        backup          -- dont forget backups on multiple PCs...

> 2.  Occasionally, I would like to ssh into my network from work.  Is it 
> best to only open up the port on the firewall or do some port 
> forwarding so that ssh connections automatically go to a different 
> (non-firewall) machine?

do all admin from inside your LAN... never from the outside (my paranoia)

ssh login should be allowed only from certain ip# ...

> 3.  I have been perusing different howtos on various networking setups 
> mail server, etc. but am always looking for a must read site, book, 
> etc.  Anyone have any good suggestions?

everybody has their own ideas ... most are good ....

-- when the machine dies ... old-age, or [h/cr]acker... old software ...
        - who gets to fix it, maintains it ??
        that person usually fixes ti the way they know how, as fast as
        they can

c ya
alvin



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