I'm trying to set up a firewall to hopefully prevent being hacked again. Since the machine is a dialup (until DSL comes to Hikutaia) I figure that it's got to be pretty straightforward.
The machine is also a workstation and file/print/mail/dnscache etc server for my home office network of itself plus 2 or 3 other machines.
The whole issue of what firewall software to use seems a bit confusing, but I think I've figured out that ipmasq does what I need. I've installed it and read the debian ipmasq users manual but I'm not sure what to do next. According to the manual I configure it using dpkg-reconfigure. I've done that and selected the ppp option.
If I were you, I'd start by reading http://www.wlug.org.nz/HowFirewallingWorks, I'd skim-read about how Perry's firewalling script works (at http://www.wlug.org.nz/PerrysFirewallingScript) and then I would install the .deb, which I'd find at http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/debian/linuxserver-firewall_0.3_all.deb. (hint: wget the file, then dpkg -i) Then, you need to go into /etc/linuxserver-firewall/interfaces.d, check the mapping between interfaces and classes (which you learnt about in your skim-read), edit the files as required and type '/etc/init.d/linuxserver-firewall restart' And then you're done, and you did some good learning along the way too. ;) Future versions of the Debian package will do automatic guessing of interfaces and network addresses. Someday. This message bought to you by "When in doubt, ask the Wiki" Craig