Meetings and Events

UNIX professionals are busy these days. Setting up routers and firewalls are fundamental to any network, but in environments where the focus is on various applications, (servers, workstations, and the software that runs on them), its difficult for a business not to choose off-the-shelf SOHO routers and networking gear. The web management guis are understandable by everyone, (even techs without UNIX knowledge), and the gear is cheap - this saves time and money.

In the meantime, the features of your average Linksys or Netgear router often leave MUCH to be desired, (https auth management, for one simple example).

Enter m0n0wall and PFSense, 2 BSD based packaged router/firewall solutions that are as solid and full featured as you`d expect from any BSD system- PLUS THEY HAVE HTML WEB INTERFACES FOR MANAGEMENT!

m0n0wall and PFSense become an easy sell in any small professional enviornment, any competent tech can manage the network within minutes... At home, in every hackers home network, they free the hacker to have trusted tools available, but are as time-saving as using any Linksys router.

m0n0wall and PFSense are both light and clean, designed to run on embedded systems- (Soekris, WRAP), but are monsters when unleashed on even legacy PCs around the office. If you manage UNIX networks and systems all day, do you really want to manage the router for your DSL when you get home? But then doesnt it bug you to use a chincey Linksys box?

Ike has been a member of NYC*BUG since we first launched in January 2004. He is a long-time member of the Lower East Side Mac Unix User Group (lesmug.org). He has spoken frequently on a number of topics at various venues, particularly on the issue of FreeBSD's jail(8).

• Event Audio (recorded and processed by Nikolai Fetissov)