What Firewall to use?

[Aaron Lewis]

I am playing with windows 2003 server, and I was looking into running a cost
effective firewall. Is ipsec a good enough firewall to secure a 2003 server
or should I look into running a different firewall?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

In my opinion ipsec is great at its job of securing traffic on the network, however
it was not designed to be or the best solution for a firewall protecting from the
internet. W2003 does have a built in firewall like XP. That and ipsec to control
outbound access would be a pretty decent setup that does not need any additional
software installed on the computer. Personally I prefer a device at the perimeter as
first line of defense and if you are running a fairly small setup, the Netgear
ProSafe line is a very affordable SPI firewall for starting under $100 and that is
what I use at home. If you want a software solution that is more flexible, powerful
[md5 hash protected executable based rules,etc], and with better logging then I
suggest you look at Sygate or Kerio which are both free for personal use. --- Steve

http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_details.asp?prodID=140&view=
http://www.webattack.com/Freeware/security/fwfirewall.shtml

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I must second Stephen's comment - protect your network at the perimeter.

 

[Guest]

protect at the perimeter, and at the server. IPSec IS built for that. If your Windows Server 2003 is the perimeter --- then you should do more.