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Let us know!
We have had lots of very kind messages from people who installed this firewall. Unfortunately, we promised in all the web pages on this site to keep all email and addresses confidential, and naturally, we're going to keep that promise.
But we were lucky
One satisfied user set up a web site about his experiences, and you can find his story at http://pozadzides.com/firewall/ In email messages back and forth with John Pozadzides, he invited us to link to his pages, so here we are. And he was only the first, look below for more web pages.
Any more?
Well, we never anticipated setting up a 'customer reviews' web page, so we never bothered to ask people if we could use their messages. Also, since we promised never to send them unsolicited mail, we cannot ask them after the fact. However, if you set up the firewall and wish to share your opinion here, drop us a note.
Web pages about us, or similar firewalls:
Joris te Molder tells how to add support for servers you may already have at http://olieslag.dhs.org/firewall/server-howto.html
A Mac 68Kversion of the firewall is maintained by Erik Winkler: http://users.erols.com/ewinkler/firewall/fwinstall.html
More user responses:
Tim Park:
I've been running a NetBSD firewall for about 2 years now. I can tell you that it was a real pain to install, configure the nic's, set up the ipnat file and hosts file........etc.etc! Not to mention how long it takes to do a ftp install with the full install, (not knowing any better). My buddy happened to run into one of the NetBSD developers on irc and was able to find out how to set it up. Otherwise I would have never figured it out. Anyhow your firewall installed in about 1/2 hour (DSL) and I didn't have to configure anything. AWESOME!!! I will certainly spread the word........great job....and thank you. As you may know there is little or no documentation on this subject and what you guys have done is make this a solution to everyone.
Fred Curlin:
Problem: DSL line, multiple
PCs
Solution: Celeron 366/128/2.5 GB (overkill)
Built NetBSD firewall; worked well except only recognised
3com 3c905Tx cards, not any other kind. Initially slow
thoughput, but after rebooting the NetBSD workstation and
stripping extraneous stuff out of my PC seems to work
better. Overall smooth and quick install after I bought
genuine 3com cards. Two thumbs up!
gary (last name withheld on request)
I have to tell you it was a snap to set up. I know a little about unix and linux so I have even gone a little farther with it now. It is very stable so far! No reboots yet! :)
I was using microsoft ics most recently. I had tried other internet connection sharing apps too, such as wingate and sybergen's sygate. Most of those have some serious security vulnerabilities. I can't justify investing in a good enough machine to run windows NT or 2000 only for the simple purpose of routing/firewall so this is a perfect way to get a solid and cheap solution...and MUCH BETTER all around!
My gateway is an Alcatel 1000 ADSL modem connected to a P-66, 48MB RAM, 400MB HDD now running NETBSD (YAY!)...using a SOHOWARE 10/100 8 port auto-switching hub...connected to 4 PC workstations, various speeds--> 100mhz, 133mhz, 400 mhz, 466 mhz...all custom built and zooming right along!
I know that some people are already using cable/dsl routers, but they should like NETBSD too. My previous experiences with linux were unsuccessful by the time I reached the networking aspects. They like to give the setup options based upon someone using it as a stand alone pc. To get multiple nic support, I had to read through tons of man pages but never got anywhere before.
Now, with this i was able to simply boot to a floppy image, run a second image and ftp install the software. Everything is auto-configurable and extremely easy to set up.
I had gotten so tired of trying to deal with ics. It kept reassigning a 169.254.x.x number to my INTERNET nic occassionally, whenever my dhcp lease would need to be renewed. I think that <my isp> sucks for giving such short leases.
So far, so well! It's working great! I have a complete LAN at home but my office doesn't even have an internet connection! That's pathetic! LOL (but not for me!)
Thanks to the guys at www.dubbele.com: John Sinteur, Bert Driehuis and Joe Morris for what you have done! You guys really rock! Best of luck!
If you'll excuse me, I have to go play some quake 3 arena now! hehehe (my kids must think i'm nutzo!)
Sincerely,
gary
