Untangle - An Open Source Firewall

A firewall is one of the tools used to secure a computer network. A firewall can prevent unwanted access to networked systems while preventing local systems from attacking systems on other networks (on the other side of the firewall). Firewalls require on-going monitoring in order to ensure that they do not unnecessarily restrict access to important computer resources while preventing unwanted access and to ensure that the firewall is operating as expected.

Firewall logs should also be reviewed regularly in order to evaluate traffic patterns including denied connections. Installing and operating a firewall to protect a LAN is only one of many criteria that Network Administrators need to consider when determining the security requirements of their environment. A complete security assessment will help identify other areas of vulnerability.

Generally, all firewalls are software-based, and there is no such thing as a purely hardware-only firewall. Embedded firewalls are simply very limited-capability programs running on a low-power CPU, and this software can be upgraded or replaced if someone has sufficient skill and resources to do so.

Untangle Gateway Platform is a Linux-based network gateway with pluggable modules for network applications like spam blocking, Web filtering, anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, VPN, SSL VPN, firewall, and more.

Untangle is an open source network gateway for small businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations. Untangle provides multiple gateway applications installed at the edge of a network.

Untangle leverages more than 30 of the best open source projects (e.g., SpamAssassin, Snort, ClamAV, OpenVPN) to safeguard the network with applications like spam blocker, spyware blocker, and virus blocker, web filtering, Firewall, IPS, VPN & more. To achieve industry-leading performance, Untangle's "virtual pipelining" technology enables each application to access network traffic in one singular process and therefore avoids the CPU context switches and buffer copies that would occur if each project was chained together through proxies. Untangle runs on VMware or on dedicated standard Intel/AMD hardware. Untangle is free and open source under the GPLv2.

Here are some key features of "Untangle Gateway Platform":

• Easy to Use: - Untangle's GUI is based on a virtual rack metaphor, comes pre-configured for business use and updates software and signatures automatically;
• Open Source: - Sourcecode is downloadable and licensed under the GPLv2;
• Free: - The platform and 12 applications are free, including both software & signature updates;
• Best of Breed: - Leverages the best open source network software like SpamAssassin, Snort, ClamAV & others;
• Comprehensive: - Anti-Spam, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Virus, Web Filtering, Phish Blocking, DOS Blocking, VPN, IPS, Firewall, router & more;
• Great Reporting: - Comprehensive reports for each application and meaningful logs;
• Future Proofing: - Platform is designed to support future applications developed by Untangle or the community.

Posted in: FSD Portal,Open Source Firewalls,Security Tools,System Tools,untangle