PCLinuxOS New User Guide: Internet Security

Edited on 2008-07-15 05:13:17 by CgetoUcono [alricmoncatr]

Additions:
chicdarrac

Edited on 2007-05-19 00:23:41 by JasonBrowne [Added move link]

Additions:
This is being moved to http://docs.mypclinuxos.com/Firewall∞

Edited on 2005-12-05 14:25:50 by LexNL [Minor addition]

Additions:
Software with the task of controlling internet (and other network) traffic coming in and going out of your computer or home network is called a firewall. Your firewall is you first line of defense against all the bad-intentioned people on the Internet. Fear not, however, good PCLinuxOS user, because the Wiki is here to safe the day!

Deletions:
Software with the task of controlling internet (and other network) traffic coming in and going out of your computer or home network is called a firewall.

Edited on 2005-12-04 10:45:59 by LexNL [Spelling]

Additions:
Software with the task of controlling internet (and other network) traffic coming in and going out of your computer or home network is called a firewall.

Deletions:
Software with the task of controlling internet (and other network) traffic comming in and going out of your computer or home network is called a firewall.

Edited on 2005-12-04 05:17:53 by LexNL [Minor additions]

Additions:
Chances are big it will say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you will see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Make sure you have unchecked the checkbox in front of "ICMP Echo (Ping) Request". It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't really a problem. More information about the "113 IDENT" can be found on a Setting your Firewall for 100% Stealth Mode∞ forum posting.

Deletions:
Chances are big it will say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you will see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Don't worry about that. It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't really a problem. More information about the "113 IDENT" can be found on a Setting your Firewall for 100% Stealth Mode∞ forum posting.

Edited on 2005-12-04 05:14:19 by LexNL [Added link to forum posting on port 113]

Additions:
Chances are big it will say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you will see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Don't worry about that. It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't really a problem. More information about the "113 IDENT" can be found on a Setting your Firewall for 100% Stealth Mode∞ forum posting.

Deletions:
Chances are big it will say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you will see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Don't worry about that. It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't a problem.

Edited on 2005-11-30 13:42:00 by LexNL [corrected wording]

Additions:
Steve Gibson has a very nice firewall "scanner" on his website, called Shields UP!!∞ Click this link, look for the button called "Proceed" and click on it. Now locate the link called "Common Ports" and click it. It will now scan your firewall for most common problems.
Chances are big it will say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you will see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Don't worry about that. It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't a problem.

Deletions:
Steve Gibson has a very nice firewall "scanner" on his website, called Shields UP!!∞ Click this link, look for the button called "Proceed" and click on it. Now locate the link called "Common Ports" and click it. It'll now scan your PC for the most used problem areas.
Chances are big it'll say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you'll see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Don't worry about that. It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't a problem.

Edited on 2005-11-30 13:39:48 by LexNL [corrected wording]

Additions:
There is another thing you have to check to see if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "Configure system services" icon. You will now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. Check that "shorewall" is listed by scrolling down to shorewall. It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot", which it should. You can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Deletions:
There is another thing you have to check to see if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "Configure system services" icon. You will now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. Check that it shorewall is listed by scrolling down to shorewall. It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot", which it should. You can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Edited on 2005-11-30 13:38:21 by LexNL [corrected wording]

Additions:
Open the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the Security icon on the left, and you'll see the security options for PCLinuxOS. You can clearly see the "Set up a Personal Firewall" icon here. Click on it. You will now see if your shorewall firewall is running. (If you have other firewalls installed, like GuardDog or Firestarter, the shorewall firewall will be disabled).
If your firewall is running, you'll see there isn't an x in front of the "Everything (no firewall)" option. If your firewall isn't running, make sure to Uncheck the "Everything (no firewall)" option. You can fine-tune which internet traffic is still allowed to your computer. You can very safely clear all the checkboxes for normal desktop systems. That said, if you want to use BitTorrent clients you might want your firewall to allow it.
There is another thing you have to check to see if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "Configure system services" icon. You will now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. Check that it shorewall is listed by scrolling down to shorewall. It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot", which it should. You can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Deletions:
Open the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the Security icon on the left, and you'll see the security options for PCLinuxOS. You can clearly see the "Set up a Personal Firewall" icon here. Click on it. You will now see if your shorewall firewall is running. (If you have installed other firewalls, like GuardDog or Firestarter, the shorewall firewall will be disabled).
If your firewall is running, you'll see there isn't an x in front of the "Everything (no firewall)" option. You can also fine-tune which internet traffic is still allowed to your computer. You can very safely clear all the checkboxes for normal desktop systems. That said, if you like to use BitTorrent clients, you might want to allow that, so make sure that you have that checked.
There is another way to check if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "configure system services" icon. You now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. Check that it is listed by scrolling down to "shorewall". It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot" (which it should) and you can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:40:57 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:
The effectiveness of Shorewall is limited on laptops. There can be confusion if you attempt to switch connections between multiple network interfaces using commandline "ifup" and "ifdown" (or by using the control center) since shorewall will not update accordingly. If you use the control center, shorewall will update its rules, however this is cumbersome, especially on laptops with wireless, wired and modem interfaces. If you think shorewall/iptables might be causing problems with your connection, you can issue the command "shorewall stop" and "service iptables stop" as root.

Deletions:
The effectiveness of Shorewall is limited on laptops. There can be confusion if you attempt to switch connections between multiple network interfaces using commandline "ifup" and "ifdown" (or by using the control center) since shorewall will not update accordingly. If you use the control center, shorewall will update its rules, however this is cumbersome, especially on laptops with wireless, wired and modem interfaces.
If you think shorewall/iptables might be causing problems with your connection, you can issue the command "shorewall stop" and "service iptables stop" as root.

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:39:24 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:
If your firewall is running, you'll see there isn't an x in front of the "Everything (no firewall)" option. You can also fine-tune which internet traffic is still allowed to your computer. You can very safely clear all the checkboxes for normal desktop systems. That said, if you like to use BitTorrent clients, you might want to allow that, so make sure that you have that checked.

Deletions:
If your firewall is running, you'll see there isn't an x in front of the "Everything (no firewall)" option.
You can also fine-tune which internet traffic is still allowed to your computer. You can very safely clear all the checkboxes for normal desktop systems. That said, if you like to use BitTorrent clients, you might want to allow that, so make sure that you have that checked.

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:39:12 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:
There is another way to check if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "configure system services" icon. You now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. Check that it is listed by scrolling down to "shorewall". It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot" (which it should) and you can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Deletions:
There is another way to check if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "configure system services" icon. You now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. A firewall is a software that provides the operating system with a service. Check that it is listed by scrolling down to "shorewall". It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot" (which it should) and you can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:36:29 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:
Open the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the Security icon on the left, and you'll see the security options for PCLinuxOS. You can clearly see the "Set up a Personal Firewall" icon here. Click on it. You will now see if your shorewall firewall is running. (If you have installed other firewalls, like GuardDog or Firestarter, the shorewall firewall will be disabled).

Deletions:
Open the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the Security icon on the left, and you'll see the security options for PCLinuxOS. You can clearly see the "Set up a Personal Firewall" icon here. Click on it. You will now see if your shorewall firewall is running. (If you have installed other firewalls, like GuardDog or Firestarter, the shorewall firewall will be disabled).

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:36:03 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:
Software with the task of controlling internet (and other network) traffic comming in and going out of your computer or home network is called a firewall.

Deletions:

General Firewall Information

A firewall has the task of controlling internet (or other network) traffic comming in and going out of your computer or network. Or between different "zones of trust" as experts call it. Typical zones of trust include the Internet (a zone with no trust) and an internal network (a zone with high trust).

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:33:43 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:
The PCLinuxOS firewall is based on the "shorewall" firewall configuration tool.
More details about the Shorewall firewall configuration tool can be found here: http://www.shorewall.net/∞

Deletions:
The PCLinuxOS firewall is based on the "shorewall" firewall configuration tool. More details about this firewall configuration tool can be found here: http://www.shorewall.net/∞

Edited on 2005-11-19 15:33:00 by LexNL [Updated.]

Additions:

Advanced Firewalling

You can read more about firewalls on our Advanced Firewalling page.

Deletions:
You can read more on our Advanced Firewalling page.

Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2005-11-19 15:31:00 by LexNL [Created a page for the Firewalling text we had in advanced.]

Page view:

Internet Security - Using Firewalls

Back to Securing Your System

General Firewall Information

The PCLinuxOS Firewall

The PCLinuxOS firewall is based on the "shorewall" firewall configuration tool. More details about this firewall configuration tool can be found here: http://www.shorewall.net/∞

How do you know your firewall is running?
Open the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the Security icon on the left, and you'll see the security options for PCLinuxOS. You can clearly see the "Set up a Personal Firewall" icon here. Click on it. You will now see if your shorewall firewall is running. (If you have installed other firewalls, like GuardDog or Firestarter, the shorewall firewall will be disabled).

If your firewall is running, you'll see there isn't an x in front of the "Everything (no firewall)" option.
You can also fine-tune which internet traffic is still allowed to your computer. You can very safely clear all the checkboxes for normal desktop systems. That said, if you like to use BitTorrent clients, you might want to allow that, so make sure that you have that checked.

There is another way to check if your firewall is active. In the PCLinuxOS Control Center, click on the System tab. You'll now see the System options. Click the "configure system services" icon. You now see an alphabetized list of software services that are running on your computer. A firewall is a software that provides the operating system with a service. Check that it is listed by scrolling down to "shorewall". It should say "running". You can also see if it starts "on boot" (which it should) and you can manually start and stop the service here as well.

Interested in how well your firewall does?
Steve Gibson has a very nice firewall "scanner" on his website, called Shields UP!!∞ Click this link, look for the button called "Proceed" and click on it. Now locate the link called "Common Ports" and click it. It'll now scan your PC for the most used problem areas.

Chances are big it'll say it was Failed. You can check which things could be improved. Chances are you'll see it complain about "ICMP Echo Requests" or Pings. Don't worry about that. It might also say that "113 IDENT" was closed. This also isn't a problem.

Shorewall and Laptops

The effectiveness of Shorewall is limited on laptops. There can be confusion if you attempt to switch connections between multiple network interfaces using commandline "ifup" and "ifdown" (or by using the control center) since shorewall will not update accordingly. If you use the control center, shorewall will update its rules, however this is cumbersome, especially on laptops with wireless, wired and modem interfaces.

If you think shorewall/iptables might be causing problems with your connection, you can issue the command "shorewall stop" and "service iptables stop" as root.

Other Firewall programs

Modern firewalls range from complex software firewalls to simple port filtering devices. More information about firewalls can be found at wikipedia∞ and CERT∞.

There are some more user-friendly firewall programs available for PCLinuxOS. GuardDog∞ and Firestarter∞ are available through synaptic, and are GUI alternatives to Shorewall. Firestarter is especially easy-to-use and is very reminscent of Zone Alarm.

You can read more on our Advanced Firewalling page.

CategorySecurity

PCLinuxOS New User Guide : FireWall

General Firewall Information

Advanced Firewalling

Internet Security - Using Firewalls

General Firewall Information

The PCLinuxOS Firewall

Shorewall and Laptops

Other Firewall programs