On Saturday 13 November 2004 05:53 pm, Dennis Kibbe kindly wrote: > On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 13:58:10 -0700 > > Siri Amrit Kaur wrote: > > We need a way to separate the LAN from the internet in Windows, but my > > boss doesn't know how to do that. He says it's impossible with WinXP Home > > Edition. > > Siri, > > Sounds like your Slackware box would do better used if it were turned into > a firewall for the entire office. Look at smoothwall[1] or IPCOP[2]. Help me to understand this, please. If we turned the Linux box into a firewall with IPcop or Smoothwall, would it allow users to access the internet but keep the database and sensitive data on the LAN somehow separate? My only experience with Linux firewalls is using Guarddog to configure iptables on a standalone box with no servers running. This situation at work is a lot more complex than that... > > Can you convince your boss of the extra costs involved in sharing one > s-l-o-w box fopr e-mail and Internet? He realizes it's a time-consuming kludge, but he's not able to spend the time to research any better solution. I guess that'll be up to me. > How many computers are in the office? 5 Windows desktops on a LAN. One of these does double-duty as both database server and user desktop system. Also the one Linux box with Slackware 10 on it. > Could you take on the added responsiblity of installing > Mozilla/Firefox/T'bird and maintaining SpyBot[3] and Ad-Aware[4] on all of > them? You've proved you can do it on your own machine. I'd be thrilled to do it if he'd let me. Until I made an issue of it, people were working in admin mode w/out passwords. I persuaded him to give people user accounts with passwords and limit user permissions on a lot of things, but the systems were already infested with spyware. I think the best thing would be to set up a Linux firewall if it would do what we need, wipe each system clean, repartition with separate D: drives for data on each box, separate from the OS on the C: drives. Reinstall with the new service pack, install Mozilla/Firefox/Opera, install the anti-virus, anti-spyware, don't even install OE and the other crud that came with the systems, network the LAN and network that to the firewall... I don't know anything about networking or setting up a Linux firewall. It would all have to be done in one weekend so they'd all be on the same clean footing when people came back to work. > > It's clear you have a problem. You now need to find a way to present it in > a way the boss can understand -- hours lost, lower productivity, etc. I'm going to your links for IPcop and Smoothwall to study up on this now. If I can figure it all out I'll type up a proposal for him and see where that goes. > > If none of this works, I agree with Eric. Family or no, your talents would > be better appreciated elsewhere. That's kind of you to think I have marketable talent, but I'm just a secretary that tinkers with Linux at home and likes to build computers. After three+ years of Linux I feel I barely know anything. Like I said, I don't know anything about networking Linux or Windows. I took a networking class twice at a community college but dropped it both times because I got overwhelmed and couldn't keep up. I'm a terribly slow learner. I feel like I'm lucky to have this job. (Although the Mayor of Mesa DID yell at my boss once to give me a raise, :-) Siri Amrit > > Dennisk > [1] http://smoothwall.org/ > [2] http://ipcop.org/ > [3] http://www.safer-networking.org > [4] http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss