Smoothwall

[TechPro]

Hello


Im interested in doing some playing with an open source firewall called "Smoothwall".

I have no experience with setting up firewalls or managing them, this is why I am having a go at setting one up.

I have been through the website and read the manuals, but i was wondering if this kind of setup would work:

The Internet coming in from a Cable Modem(the internet) into the RED Interface of the smoothwall firewall(a nic on the computer) and then going out on the GREEN interface into my wireless router.

How would the config work because the green interface would have to be giving the IP Address of 192.168.11.1 and that is the IP of the wireless router?

Hope that all makes sense if not just nudge me, like I said i no very liltle about firewalls.

Do you think this would work?

Thanks Matt

[Bryce W]

Well you have chosen a good Distro to play with. Smoothwall is very good and helped me learn alot about linux. I still run a smoothie as my firewall/gateway PC. I also have a wireless router on my network so we have pretty similar networks. Anyway, this is what you'll want:

Smoothwall PC:
Have two network cards in your Smoothwall PC, one being RED interface for the internet and one being GREEN interface for your internal LAN.

Smoothwall is more than just a firewall, it also works as a router if you want it to. I recommend you use Smoothwall as the router.

Turn on DHCP on your Smoothwall to make it act as your router and firewall.

Wireless Router:
Plug your Wireless router into the GREEN interface of the Smoothie and plug the other end into one of the Wireless routers PC plugs. NOT the Internet/WAN plug.

In the setup of your wireless router, tell it to get its IP address via DHCP (meaning it will get its IP off the Smoothwall) and turn OFF the Wireless routers DHCP server (so the wireless wont give out IPs). Set your Wireless routers internal IP to something you'll remember (eg. 192.168.0.69). If you like you can tell the Smoothwall to lock this number to the wireless router, but I didnt bother.

You MAY have to setup your router by plugging the cable modem directly into the wireless routers WAN/Internet interface and a PC on the LAN ports. For mine this was the only way I could set it up these settings, but when I finished I plugged it all in the way I mentioned above.


So your setup would be like this:

Internet ---> [Smoothwall Red Interface -> Smoothwall Green Interface] ---> Wireless Router plugged into COMPUTER ports.