Newbie Question - about newbie user support

[Marian Hettwer]

Hi there,


On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:08:43 -0700 (PDT), Passive PROFITS
<passiveprofits at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi there Marian!
> 
> First off, I must point out that it's incredibly nice
> to have met my first female (I assume correctly!?) on
> a computer related list.  Long rumoured about ...
> Finally!  Unlike the Yeti:  actually spotted! LMAO
>
Sorry to burst that bubble, but Marian is actually a male name. German
version of latin Marius.
I know, it's a very uncommon name and yes, it happens from time to time
that people think it's a female name.
;-)
 
> 
> --- Marian Hettwer <mh at kernel32.de> wrote:
> 
>> Hi there,
>>
>> On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:19:55 -0700 (PDT), Passive
>> PROFITS
>> <passiveprofits at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > FWIW, I am only experienced with putting together
>> > firewalls in Ubuntu using a GUI (Firestarter).  I
>> do
>> > not seem to have come across problems using that
>> combo
>> > (IPtables? + Firestarter GUI).
>> >
>> I'm actually not aware wether there is a gui to plug
>> together a firewall
>> ruleset based on pf(4).
>> That said, I suggest to use pf as the packet filter
>> of choice. It's a great
>> one.
>> Get a first impression about pf(4) by reading the
>> handbook
>>
>
(http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/firewalls-pf.html)
>> or by reading man pfctl.
>> As a newbie, you should start with the handbook :)
> 
> OK, OK - I'm not averse to a handbook or two ;)  And I
> am not trying to short-circuit that route.  I am on
> handbook overload though, what with trying to get my
> head around Linux, and now FreeBSD, too!  I need to
> slow down a little.  I've wanted a Linux install for
> like years, before Ubuntu came along, and now I've got
> all those years lost, to catch up on ... Not all
> tonight, I realise! ;)  <g>
>
I didn't even know that ubuntu has a handbook ;-)
 
>> Obviously you should have an idea what a packet
>> filter (buzzword is
>> firewall) does. A good understanding on how tcp and
>> networking works is
>> preferred for a good configuration.
> 
> I've got some very basic understanding (no technical
> understanding) of your basic POST & GET, from doing a
> very little webmastering some years ago.  I also 'get'
> the idea that different protocols have different
> default ports through which they usually operate.
> Past that though, I'm basically in need of going right
> to the start, and not skipping anything!!  I'm in this
> long-term though, so won't be complaining.
>
As a starter, I'd say, take a look at the wikipedia.org article about
tcp/ip.
It's worth it. Cause if you don't know what you're doing, you won't find
mistakes.
No offense ment. It happened to me too.
Just followed a howto and then, holy crap, it just doesn't work.
And since I didn't know what I was typing, cause I just followed the howto,
obviously I couldn't spot the mistake _in_ this howto.
Lesson learned: Try to understand what you're doing :)


>> Another way of just having a FreeBSD + pf based
>> firewall would be using
>> pfsense (http://www.pfsense.org/) which is in my
>> understanding a FreeBSD
>> live CD with a nice webfrontend to configure your
>> router/firewall.
> 
> Thanks for that, and the other recommendation from
> another.  I may find that I get one of these firewalls
> 'out of the box' working, then install a 'proper'
> install on another machine to play with/learn on, etc.
Sounds like a good plan to me.

best regards,
Marian, still male, sorry 'bout that ;-)