Hi, .. Being a complete newbie to Linux, from what I have been learning about the need or lack of it where security software is concerned, I have a question regarding the firewall. Is the firewall installed active in Linux Lite or does it have to be turned on as it does in Ubuntu? I have not been able to find the firewall in Lite.
Can anyone inform me about this? I have not been able to find an answer to this anywhere on line.
Help would be appreciated.
LinuxLite is built on top of Ubuntu. As such it has built-in network rules (iptables) and firewall command line control (ufw).
By default it does not have the firewall enabled with specific rules.
If you are interested in managing the rules, I suggest you install "gufw", which is a graphical interface for ufw (requires to be run under root with sudo).
You can find more info on ufw
here and about gufw
here.
Thank you riser. It also pays to keep in mind that most routers these days ship with in built linux firewalls. You don't need a software firewall on your pc unless you want to create specific rules for traffic.
Thank you for the info and links riser. I do appreciate it.
Thank you for that info Valtam. I will have to find out how to check that on my Uverse router.
Just to clarify: I do not have the software firewall active on my PC. I provided the information in case you need to for whatever reason (a machine in a DMZ, etc.).
A hardware based firewall (most routers nowadays as Valtam mentions) is a better and more effective solution.
I do not seem to have enough computer knowledge to configure rules on GUFW at this point, so I am wondering if the router firewall provides as much security if it is a home wireless router/modem that one is using. Would a wireless device accessing the internet at home be less secure than a wired connection device, if that wireless device does not have it's own firewall running?
EDIT: No need to respond. I have answered my question about the wireless router, which is that it does provide firewall protection for wireless connected devices.
If you'd like, you can enable the firewall without adding any special rules. It's default settings will be to deny incoming connections and allow outgoing connections. If an incoming request is simply a reply to one of your program's outgoing queries, it will be accepted (eg. Firefox requesting a page to view); but if it is just some random attempted connection it will be denied.
To enable UFW, enter the following in a terminal window:
That will turn it on and enable it on each startup.
To check status:
Or, for more details:
Code:
sudo ufw status verbose
To turn it back off:
More info on basic usage:
Other info:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UFW
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/firewall.html
http://pka.engr.ccny.cuny.edu/~jmao/node/28
Thanks gold_finger, very helpful
(02-19-2014, 05:06 AM)gold_finger date Wrote: [ -> ]If you'd like, you can enable the firewall without adding any special rules. It's default settings will be to deny incoming connections and allow outgoing connections. If an incoming request is simply a reply to one of your program's outgoing queries, it will be accepted (eg. Firefox requesting a page to view); but if it is just some random attempted connection it will be denied. ...
I have turned on the firewall as per these instructions. Are there any "special rules" that I might need? Is there any need for a graphical interface like Firestarter for a Linux newby like me? :-\