Solved Getting started with SmoothWall
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I am wanting to get started with SmoothWall Express and a dedicated computer with dual NICs, one onboard and one addon card. SmoothWall is installed and I have my red and green setup, but I still cannot access the Internet. I also have a few objectives with this firewall.
Besides this being a better firewall than your usual SOHO routers, I am wanting DDNS with DuckDNS and OpenVPN on this firewall so that I can be connected to my home and its resources when I am out of the house. I have Sprint with unlimited data plan so I'm not worried about data charges.
My question, does anybody have any good resources on how to start off with SmoothWall? I've already looked at YouTube and the SmoothWall forums and only see the usual "Pff, look at this newb" comments.
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If I remember right, you have to set up the Firewall to handle NAT and all of that and then setup an allow rule.
What version of Smoothwall are you on?
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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.
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@dafyre said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
If I remember right, you have to set up the Firewall to handle NAT and all of that and then setup an allow rule.
What version of Smoothwall are you on?
Know of any good resources to setup NAT and an allow rule?
SmoothWall Express 3.1. They haven't released a new version in a couple of years.
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How did you decide on Smoothwall? I have an Untangle install that is up for renew and was thinking to switching to pfSense or OPNsense.
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@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.
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@NerdyDad How is pfSense not Linux? Or did you mean that you want to control everything at the CLI?
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@Danp said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@NerdyDad How is pfSense not Linux? Or did you mean that you want to control everything at the CLI?
PFSense is based on one of the BSD variants.
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@Danp My dad got me started on watching Hak5 and they showed how to create a VPN and setup DDNS with a firewall that is what appears to be Linux based. However, from what I have seen, Hak5 never comes out and directly say what firewall they are using. To me, it appeared to be Linux-based, therefore I deduced that it was possibly SmoothWall. However, I could be wrong and they could be using pfSense.
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@Danp said in Getting started with SmoothWall:
@NerdyDad How is pfSense not Linux? Or did you mean that you want to control everything at the CLI?
Isn't PfSense based on BSD?
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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.
