SmoothWall Express

SmoothWall Express is a Linux-based network firewall distro designed for home and small business use. The SmoothWall project was founded in the summer of 2000 by Lawrence Manning (Principle Code Author) and Richard Morrell (Project Manager). With SmoothWall Express, you can convert a old PC into a hardened internet firewall device.

Origin – Home Page: UK – SmoothWall Express

Price: SmoothWall Express is free and Open Source.

Comments: SmoothWall Express is a run-from-hard drive firewall distro, and it’s easily installed via a ncurses interface. Development and maintenance is by SmoothWall Limited, a network security outfit based in the UK. Some of the features available on SmoothWall Express are:

• Firewall, VPN, and IDS
• Web, IM, POP3, and SIP proxy services
• DHCP and DNS
• Remote access and QoS
• Real-time traffic graph using AJAX
• Real-time per-IP address traffic stats
• Wireless Access point support
• Time-of-day traffic filtering
• One-click automatic software updates
• Configuration backup to/from floppy

You may view the base features of SmoothWall Express as well as that of other distros in the firewall cum router category in the feature overview of Linux and BSD firewall and router distros.

Aside from SmoothWall’s default features and services, there are dozens of community-created enhancements. These enhancements – mods in Smoothie parlance – include basic feature enhancements like the one to make the system emit system-related beeps, to more advanced features like the WoL. The full list of mods are available here.

Download: You may download an iso image or a VMWare image for both the 32- and 64-bit architectures.

Support: SmoothWall has a very active community. You may join them at the SmoothWall forum.