Solved Getting started with SmoothWall
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@NerdyDad said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@JaredBusch said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
I've not used Smoothwall for years. It was a decent product, but pfSense worked better for me at the time, so I went with that and never touched Smoothwall again.
I'm trying to stick with Linux as much as possible. I'm sure pfSense is a great product, but I'm trying to learn Linux and figured surrounding myself with Linux will help me learn it in many different aspects. I have other plans for my home network and Linux.
What would you be doing at the OS level on your router? If the answer is not nothing, then you are doing it wrong. pfSense runs on FreeBSD which is still a Unix descendent.
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SmoothWall is not as good as Uniquiti gear with edgeOS. Not as good as pfSense.
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If you want to build your own and save $65 over Uniquiti use VyOS, not SmoothWall.
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@scottalanmiller said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
If you want to build your own and save $65 over Uniquiti use VyOS, not SmoothWall.
Definitely looking at the free route as I am more of a DIYer with what I have. Definitely looking at the VyOS. Just wasn't considering going BSD and trying to keep everything Linux. I understand that both are UNIX-derived, but just don't know how similar/different they are between the two.
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@NerdyDad said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@scottalanmiller said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
If you want to build your own and save $65 over Uniquiti use VyOS, not SmoothWall.
Definitely looking at the free route as I am more of a DIYer with what I have. Definitely looking at the VyOS. Just wasn't considering going BSD and trying to keep everything Linux. I understand that both are UNIX-derived, but just don't know how similar/different they are between the two.
VyOS is Linux.
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@stacksofplates Sorry about that. Wasn't thinking about it.
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@NerdyDad said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@scottalanmiller said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
If you want to build your own and save $65 over Uniquiti use VyOS, not SmoothWall.
Definitely looking at the free route as I am more of a DIYer with what I have. Definitely looking at the VyOS. Just wasn't considering going BSD and trying to keep everything Linux. I understand that both are UNIX-derived, but just don't know how similar/different they are between the two.
pfSense is FreeBSD, but VyOS is Linux. Just enterprise Linux designed from the ground up to be an enterprise router (it's derived from Brocade's enterprise Vyatta same as EdgeOS is from Ubiquiti.) SmoothWall is just normal Linux, not meant to be a router. Good for what it is, but not what you'd use today.
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I've used Smoothwall for nearly 20 years and still do. Out of the box it comes with default rules and a nice GUI, so you can set it up in about 5 minutes. I did look into the corporate version a few years ago when we were looking at implementing a few extra features not available in the free Express version but it was quite expensive and I didn't really get on with it.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
I've used Smoothwall for nearly 20 years and still do. Out of the box it comes with default rules and a nice GUI, so you can set it up in about 5 minutes. I did look into the corporate version a few years ago when we were looking at implementing a few extra features not available in the free Express version but it was quite expensive and I didn't really get on with it.
We used to use it, maybe 16 years ago at NTG. It was a good product, worked well for us.
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@scottalanmiller said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
I've used Smoothwall for nearly 20 years and still do. Out of the box it comes with default rules and a nice GUI, so you can set it up in about 5 minutes. I did look into the corporate version a few years ago when we were looking at implementing a few extra features not available in the free Express version but it was quite expensive and I didn't really get on with it.
We used to use it, maybe 16 years ago at NTG. It was a good product, worked well for us.
It was barely released 16 years ago. August 2000.
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@JaredBusch said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@scottalanmiller said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
I've used Smoothwall for nearly 20 years and still do. Out of the box it comes with default rules and a nice GUI, so you can set it up in about 5 minutes. I did look into the corporate version a few years ago when we were looking at implementing a few extra features not available in the free Express version but it was quite expensive and I didn't really get on with it.
We used to use it, maybe 16 years ago at NTG. It was a good product, worked well for us.
It was barely released 16 years ago. August 2000.
Yup, we had the boxed copy of the first release. I'm not sure that we had it in 2000 but we definitely were on it in 2001 at the latest. Ran it on a brand new PIII that we bought in late 2000.
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And what's wrong with it now?
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@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
The general idea of running mixed solutions is frowned upon (at least by the ML crowd). You can get super cheap but good firewall services for as low as $55 for an ER-X, then if you really need web filtering, do that as a VM on your VM Host.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
It is a personal preference of myself as well as @scottalanmiller.
- Separate tasks on separate systems
- Do you even need a content filter based on squid with little to no SSL handling
- more things I am not thinking of
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@Dashrender said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
The general idea of running mixed solutions is frowned upon (at least by the ML crowd). You can get super cheap but good firewall services for as low as $55 for an ER-X, then if you really need web filtering, do that as a VM on your VM Host.
You'e lost me. I just use it as a firewall. Smoothwall Express doesn't offer web filtering, does it?
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@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Dashrender said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
The general idea of running mixed solutions is frowned upon (at least by the ML crowd). You can get super cheap but good firewall services for as low as $55 for an ER-X, then if you really need web filtering, do that as a VM on your VM Host.
You'e lost me. I just use it as a firewall. Smoothwall Express doesn't offer web filtering, does it?
Smoothwall has traditionally required a PC, even a 10 year old PC will use 10 times as (or way more) much power as a ER-X. It also has kinds of of moving parts, and takes a not insignificant amount of space.
An ER-X isn't much larger than a deck of cards, sips power, as no moving parts, All for the cost of $55.
I have no idea what it takes to install/setup/update, etc a Smoothwall, but an ER-X only requires you to download an update file, upload that to the ER-X and upgrade complete. I doubt the Smoothwall is that easy - but it's possible.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Dashrender said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
The general idea of running mixed solutions is frowned upon (at least by the ML crowd). You can get super cheap but good firewall services for as low as $55 for an ER-X, then if you really need web filtering, do that as a VM on your VM Host.
You'e lost me. I just use it as a firewall. Smoothwall Express doesn't offer web filtering, does it?
You are only using the firewall? do not continue. dump it. waste of resources and money.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
It used to be the only game in town, more or less. Enterprise Open source routing wasn't available back then. So it was the best we had. But pfSense was a slight improvement on it the New Vyatta / VyOS came along and totally eliminated the reason for SmoothWall to exist. It was really just a temporary market system until something more serious came along. It's not that it got worse, it's that the reasons that made it make sense disappeared.
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@Dashrender said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Dashrender said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@Carnival-Boy said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
And what's wrong with it now?
The general idea of running mixed solutions is frowned upon (at least by the ML crowd). You can get super cheap but good firewall services for as low as $55 for an ER-X, then if you really need web filtering, do that as a VM on your VM Host.
You'e lost me. I just use it as a firewall. Smoothwall Express doesn't offer web filtering, does it?
Smoothwall has traditionally required a PC, even a 10 year old PC will use 10 times as (or way more) much power as a ER-X. It also has kinds of of moving parts, and takes a not insignificant amount of space.
An ER-X isn't much larger than a deck of cards, sips power, as no moving parts, All for the cost of $55.
I have no idea what it takes to install/setup/update, etc a Smoothwall, but an ER-X only requires you to download an update file, upload that to the ER-X and upgrade complete. I doubt the Smoothwall is that easy - but it's possible.
Even if you consider the Pc to be free, an ERX pays for itself in power reduction quickly.
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OK, I'll get an ER-X. Thanks for the advice.
