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 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]