Astaro firewall/security software - any good?

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of Astaro's Linux
firewall/security software?

It's supposedly a stripped-down Linux kernel with firewall, antispam, IDS,
URL filtering, and a bunch of other security stuff with a built-in web
interface. They offer a free version for personal use, and I'm curious to
know if it's any good.

--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dorsai - Author of Erotic Fiction
http://www.asstr.org/~Dorsai
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Dorsai wrote:
> Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of Astaro's Linux
> firewall/security software?
>
> It's supposedly a stripped-down Linux kernel with firewall, antispam, IDS,
> URL filtering, and a bunch of other security stuff with a built-in web
> interface. They offer a free version for personal use, and I'm curious to
> know if it's any good.
>

I can say it's a good piece of software. People says always good things
about this distribution and is very oriented to security.
I test it a long time ago, and then I found it was good, but I think
it has changed almost totally now, and it should be much better.
My opinion: check the free version and if it suits you buy the
complete version, the free version I downloaded was almost complete
and you could check every aspect of the distribution.


--

Jose Maria Lopez Hernandez
Director Tecnico de bgSEC
jkerouac@bgsec.com
bgSEC Seguridad y Consultoria de Sistemas Informaticos
http://www.bgsec.com
ESPAÑA

The only people for me are the mad ones -- the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn
like fabulous yellow Roman candles.
-- Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 21:40:58 +0200, Jose Maria Lopez Hernandez
thoughtfully wrote:

> Dorsai wrote:
>> Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of Astaro's Linux
>> firewall/security software?
>>
>> It's supposedly a stripped-down Linux kernel with firewall, antispam, IDS,
>> URL filtering, and a bunch of other security stuff with a built-in web
>> interface. They offer a free version for personal use, and I'm curious to
>> know if it's any good.
>>
>
> I can say it's a good piece of software. People says always good things
> about this distribution and is very oriented to security.
> I test it a long time ago, and then I found it was good, but I think
> it has changed almost totally now, and it should be much better.
> My opinion: check the free version and if it suits you buy the
> complete version, the free version I downloaded was almost complete
> and you could check every aspect of the distribution.

One of the Linux magazines from the UK (10usd) has the Astaro software on
CD along with Fedora Core 2 CDs. Inside the magazine there's a write up
on Astaro. I don't remember the details but I got the impression the
review was favorable and I also think there is a subscription few for the
AV updates. Astaro uses the Open Source version of Karpinszy(?) AV for
its AV engine. That's all I remember.