Firewall? Antivirus?

I'm in the process of setting up an old laptop with a linux
distribution, but since I plan on using it as a mobile computer
(obviously) I want to ensure a reasonable level of security. There
seems to be plenty of software available for servers, but I'm having a
little trouble coming up with antivirus and firewall software for
personal computers. Any suggestions?
--
K

Three diseases without shame: Love, itch and thirst.
Irish Proverb

Mujin <baka@hornedking.com> said:
>I'm in the process of setting up an old laptop with a linux
>distribution, but since I plan on using it as a mobile computer
>(obviously) I want to ensure a reasonable level of security. There
>seems to be plenty of software available for servers, but I'm having a
>little trouble coming up with antivirus and firewall software for
>personal computers. Any suggestions?

Antivirus: the server antivirus suites tend to be for scanning files for
viruses targeting Microsoft OSes; there doesn't seem to be that much
viral code for Linux in the wild.

As for firewall for a mobile device, implementing one should mostly be
easier than implementing one for a server: for a mobile device I wouldn't
expect a need for accepting traffic initiated from outside the machine,
so the only packets that need to get in are packets in response for
something sent by the laptop. As long as the Linux distribution is recent
enough to have iptables-based firewalling functionality (instead of
ipchains), implementing this kind of firewall is extremely easy just
with the iptables base tools (so no need for any separate firewall-
builder software).
--
Wolf a.k.a. Juha Laiho Espoo, Finland
(GC 3.0) GIT d- s+: a C++ ULSH++++$ P++@ L+++ E- W+$@ N++ !K w !O !M V
PS(+) PE Y+ PGP(+) t- 5 !X R !tv b+ !DI D G e+ h---- r+++ y++++
"...cancel my subscription to the resurrection!" (Jim Morrison)

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:27:02 GMT, Juha Laiho <Juha.Laiho@iki.fi>
wrote:

>Mujin <baka@hornedking.com> said:
>>I'm in the process of setting up an old laptop with a linux
>>distribution, but since I plan on using it as a mobile computer
>>(obviously) I want to ensure a reasonable level of security. There
>>seems to be plenty of software available for servers, but I'm having a
>>little trouble coming up with antivirus and firewall software for
>>personal computers. Any suggestions?
>
>Antivirus: the server antivirus suites tend to be for scanning files for
>viruses targeting Microsoft OSes; there doesn't seem to be that much
>viral code for Linux in the wild.
>
>As for firewall for a mobile device, implementing one should mostly be
>easier than implementing one for a server: for a mobile device I wouldn't
>expect a need for accepting traffic initiated from outside the machine,
>so the only packets that need to get in are packets in response for
>something sent by the laptop. As long as the Linux distribution is recent
>enough to have iptables-based firewalling functionality (instead of
>ipchains), implementing this kind of firewall is extremely easy just
>with the iptables base tools (so no need for any separate firewall-
>builder software).

I see. The manual I picked up didn't say anything about this, so I
guess it's time to go to the library.
--
K

"What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the
sake of the good and for the Christian church...a lie out of
necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be
against God, he would accept them."
--Martin Luther [1483 - 1546]

> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:27:02 GMT, Juha Laiho <Juha.Laiho@iki.fi>
> wrote:
>>Mujin <baka@hornedking.com> said:
>>>seems to be plenty of software available for servers, but I'm having a
>>>little trouble coming up with antivirus and firewall software for
>>>personal computers. Any suggestions?

You do not need antivirus client software on Linux.
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/inde...ge=virus#virus
The only legitimate use for antivirus software on a Unix-like OS is to
protect *other* machines. Whilst it remains possible in theory that a
harmful virus for Linux could be written, it is certain that we will
never see the problem hit us to the degree it hit Windows.

>>ipchains), implementing this kind of firewall is extremely easy just
>>with the iptables base tools (so no need for any separate firewall-

There's an excellent example of just such a simple firewall here:
http://www.netfilter.org/documentati...g-HOWTO-5.html

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:58:22 -0500, Mujin wrote:
> I see. The manual I picked up didn't say anything about this, so I
> guess it's time to go to the library.

Or maybe not. Libraries tend not to do well keeping up with the latest
in technological literature. For that matter, mainstream publishers
tend to lack understanding of computing, so dead tree books are not the
best source for information pertaining to GNU/Linux.

The best library is http://www.google.com/ .
--
/dev/rob0 - preferred_email=i$((28*28+28))@softhome.net
or put "not-spam" or "/dev/rob0" in Subject header to reply

Mujin wrote:

>
> I'm in the process of setting up an old laptop with a linux
> distribution, but since I plan on using it as a mobile computer
> (obviously) I want to ensure a reasonable level of security. There
> seems to be plenty of software available for servers, but I'm having a
> little trouble coming up with antivirus and firewall software for
> personal computers. Any suggestions?

1) Learn how to secure a windows computer, and/or use a distro that has easy
security controls. Mandrake (newbie) and Slackware (do-it-yourself) come
to mind.
2) Firewall -- Mandrake's automated firewall is nice. However, IPTables on
Slackware can be just as nice.
3) Antivirus? Uh, FProt has antivirus for Linux, but I don't use antivirus.

> --
> K
>
> Three diseases without shame: Love, itch and thirst.
> Irish Proverb

--
"The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, `What
does
woman want?'"
-- Sigmund Freud