[svlug] Firewalls?

[Skip Evans]

Hey all,

I know sqaut about firewalls, except for minimal 
experience installing Astaro at my last job, but 
as you know I'm a developer and not a sys admin, 
and work in my own small shop where I wear hats 
that are sometimes too big for my small cranium.

But anyway, our servers here are always getting 
hit with script kiddies running ssh login 
attempts, running down the alphabet of possible 
user names, etc. They have no chance to get in but 
it sure is annoying watching the server lights 
flash and seeing all that traffic on our network.

So I started thinking about firewalls and was told 
that a simple Debian box running IP tables might 
be a solution, but I need to educate myself I'm 
afraid.

So what I'd like to know is what are some good 
reading materials for a newbie to firewalls, and 
while studying that, what kind of configuration 
should I look into?

I found this site of live CDs, 
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php, and 
see some listed as firewalls and was wondering if 
setting up an old spare box running something like 
one of these might be a good start. If once they 
prove themselves workable if they have an "install 
to hard drive" option, that would be cool to.

So, to recap:

1) Any recommended reading sources would be 
greatly appreciated;

2) Recommendations for a specific installation 
would be great, and finally;

3) Do you think those live CDs are worth a look? I 
do have a spare box I can commit to the efforts.

Thanks globules!

Skip
-- 
Skip Evans
Big Sky Penguin, LLC
61 W Broadway
Butte, Montana 59701
406-782-2240
http://bigskypenguin.com
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