This one time, at band camp, Paul Smith wrote:
On 9/27/05, Scot L. Harris webid@cfl.rr.com wrote:
Is it better to use the built in firewall with rhfc4 or use something like firestarter?
Either one is fine. I believe firestarter still uses iptables it just puts an interface on it that is easier to use for some.
So it all depends on what you prefer and how comfortable you are with iptables. Most people don't require very complex rules so the defaults are most likely sufficient. Those that need more complex rules might benefit from having an easier interface to write those rules.
Just keep it simple. Complex rules sets have a way of leaving unexpected holes if you are not careful.
I would like to add that Shorewall can be easily configured with Webmin as a GUI.
Paul
The best GUI based firewall management application in my opinion is fwbuilder. It looks like it is designed on Checkpoints FW1 GUI. The good thing about it is that you can manage many firewalls with it. It uses ssh to apply rules to remote machines.