Linux Firewall or UTM to save money

The price of commercial hardware and software firewalls are as following

checkpoint UTM: Price range $4000 - $28000 (approx)

SonicWALL TotalSecure 3G (TZ190) (01-SSC-6088) Firewal = Price range: $709 - $1100 (approx)

cybernetra (s/w UTM from india): Price range Rs.60000 - 150000 (approx)

Thank God

Linux is Free,

We can use Linux for implementing firewall and UTM in our enterprise. Linux is free and from security point of view it is best.

Why We Use Linux as firewall server or UTM

1. In the world there are many commercial firewall are available which are not able to full fill our all requirements, Many firewall contain many extra features which are not our requirement, so why we pay for that features, Many firewall did not have some specific features which is our current requirement. So, the best option is to use linux and customize it according to our own requirements.

2. Purchasing a costly firewall is not means that out valuable information of network is secure, so ,if we deploy Linux firewall then it configurable according to our requirements.

3. Life time of a dedicated firewall hardware is fixed by license or terms of use, but Linux firewall is for life time, even if want to change server hardware, then we can change easily.

How we can deploy Linux Firewall / UTM : there are varies method, to deploy linux firewall.

option 1: There are many opensource linux firewall software are available over internet at free of cost. For example: IPcope, Zeroshell etc. But, these products may not full fill our all requirements.

option 2: Implement Linux firewall, manualy installing and deploying server with the help of iptables, squid, traffic control etc.

How to Deploy Linux firewall manually :

Steps:

1. Install Linux by selecting anyone distribution like debian, fedora, opensuse etc.
2. install and configure squid proxy server and provide access to the users through proxy.
3. Use iptables to block unwanted ports and IP.
4. use tc command for traffic control, by which we can control bandwidth, and we can optimize or provide more bandwidth to web surffing, instead of other services.

Even We can use Linux Firewall or UTM for blocking unwanted softwares which can bypass proxy server. software like your-freedom, freegate, ultrasurf can be blocked by using linux firewall.

Conclusion: Linux firewall or UTM is best for small to large enterprises, education institites from school to universities.