SmoothWall

SmoothWall is a Linux distribution designed to be used as an open source firewall. Designed for ease of use, SmoothWall is configured via a web-based GUI, and requires little or no knowledge of Linux to install or use.

Smoothwall is also a private software company based in the UK that develops firewall and web content filtering software, and which also maintains the SmoothWall open source project.

History

SmoothWall began life as SmoothWall GPL, a freely redistributable version, in August 2000, with a proprietary version sold by SmoothWall Ltd from November 2001. It is now available in several free and paid-for versions.

According to figures released by the company, Smoothwall currently has over 1 million active installations worldwide.cite web | authorlink = SmoothWall Ltd. | title = SmoothWall Product Family | url = http://www.smoothwall.net/products/family/firewall.php | accessdate = 2007-02-25]

moothWall Express

Infobox_OS
name = SmoothWall Express



caption = Smoothwall Express 2.0 Welcome Screen
family = Linux
source_model = Open source
latest_release_version = 3.0 "Polar"
latest_release_date = August 22, 2007
latest_test_version = 3.0 RC1 "Sammy"
latest_test_date = August 7, 2007
kernel_type = Linux 2.6.16.53 (stable) / 2.6 (unstable)
ui = web user interface
license = Various
working_state = Current
website = http://www.smoothwall.org/

SmoothWall Express — originally "SmoothWall GPL" — is the freely distributable version of SmoothWall, developed by the SmoothWall Open Source Project team and members of SmoothWall Ltd.

moothWall GPL

Released in August 2000, SmoothWall GPL was developed by Lawrence Manning and Richard Morrell to provide a quick and easy-to-use solution to the problem of sharing their ISDN connections with the rest of their LAN. Created using Red Hat Linux, SmoothWall GPL originally had two simple functions: control the modem to dial up and hang up, and to route TCP/IP packets from the LAN to the Internet connection, and back again. The LAN was hidden from the public network by NAT, applied using ipchains.

Beginning with 0.9 in August 2000, the SmoothWall GPL 0.9.x series went through several versions based on the 2.2 Linux kernel, culminating in 0.9.9 SE in December 2001, which was probably the most popular GPL release. Each release led to a number of improvements, including PAT (port forwarding), DMZ, PSTN and ISDN dial-up support, broadband (ADSL and Cable) support.

SmoothWall GPL 1.0 was released in December 2002, including all previously released patches and security fixes, and ended development of the 0.9.x/1.0 series, although it was supported by errata updates for another year and a half.

SmoothWall was amongst the first software appliance firewalls, including Mandrake Single Network Firewall, ClarkConnect, m0n0wall, and IPCop, which was forked from SmoothWall GPL 0.9.9 in late 2001.

Releases

* 30 August 2000 - SmoothWall 0.9
* 2 September 2000 - SmoothWall 0.9.1
* 9 September 2000 - SmoothWall 0.9.2
* 18 September 2000 - SmoothWall 0.9.4
* 15 November 2000 - SmoothWall 0.9.5LF
* 6 December 2000 - SmoothWall 0.9.6
* 2 April 2001 - SmoothWall 0.9.8
* 15 September 2001 - SmoothWall 0.9.9
* 10 December 2002 - SmoothWall GPL 1.0

moothWall Express 2

Developed from 2002 to 2003, the next major release of SmoothWall was intended to be numbered 1.0, but the large number of changes and improvements led the development team to term it worth a 2.0 version number. The team decided that the name "SmoothWall GPL" wasn't inclusive enough, worrying that newcomers to SmoothWall wouldn't understand the acronym. On 16 September 2003, the name was officially changed to SmoothWall Expresscite web| authorlink = William Anderson| title = Beta 6 "Voyager" and a New Name ...| url = http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4945| date = 2003-09-16| accessdate = 2007-02-25] to imply speed of installation, use and operation.

Express improved on the functionality of SmoothWall GPL by using the 2.4 Linux kernel, improving the web user interface, and making many changes to existing features and adding several new ones.cite web| authorlink = William Anderson| title = SmoothWall Express 2.0 Release Notes| url = http://smoothwall.org/about/release/2.0.html| accessdate = 2007-02-25]

After the 2.0 release, development and testing of the software was mainly led by SmoothWall Ltd. staff, with less work being done by outside volunteer contributors.

Releases

* 8 December 2003 - SmoothWall Express 2.0
* 22 December 2006 - SmoothWall Express 2.0 SP1

SmoothWall Express 3

On 1 September 2005, the fifth anniversary of the original SmoothWall firewall, an alpha version of Smoothwall 3.0 was released, code named "Grizzly", followed by "Panda" on December 23, 2005 and "Koala" on December 22, 2006. Express 3 uses the 2.6 Linux kernel and a new build system developed internally at SmoothWall Ltd. As Express 3 development has continued, the team has gradually expanded to again include outside volunteers. The latest Beta release is smoothwall 3 code name "Degu" which has increased driver support and a new look GUI.

The stable release of Express 3, dubbed "Polar" was released August 22, 2007.

In August 2008 SmoothWall Express 3 won an award for the 2008 Best of Open Source Software Awards (BOSSIES) in the open source security category. [http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/08/172-best_of_open_so-4.html] The selections were made by the InfoWorld Test Center to recognise the best free and open source software for business, IT professionals, and IT staffs.

SmoothWall Limited

Infobox_OS
name = SmoothWall Ltd
developer = SmoothWall Ltd
family = Linux
source_model = Closed source
latest_release_version = Advanced Firewall 2008 / Corporate Firewall 2008 / School Guardian 2008 / Network Guardian 2008
latest_release_date =
kernel_type = Linux 2.6
ui = web user interface
license = Commercial
working_state = Current
website = [http://www.smoothwall.com/ smoothwall.com]

In late 2001, Manning and Morrell, with George Lungley, formed SmoothWall Limited as a UK registered private limited company, company number 04298247. The company was formed to take the open source software and commercialise it, by expanding the software to include corporate and enterprise oriented functionality, and to provide dedicated support staff for customers to contact.

In March, 2003, Morrell left both the open source project and company to pursue other interests.cite web| authorlink = SmoothWall Ltd.| title = Co-Founder of SmoothWall Announces New Venture| url = http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2420| date = 2003-03-19| accessdate = 2007-02-25]

Based in Leeds and Southampton, the company has continued to develop the commercial, closed source SmoothWall product range, and has moved from its initial direct sales model to a reseller, channel-based sales model.

In 2008 SmoothWall opened its first USA office, in Charlotte, NC run by Richard Moore, formerly Sales Manager of SmoothWall Ltd.

Products

erver Edition

SmoothWall Server Edition was the first product from SmoothWall Ltd., released on 11 November 2001. It was essentially SmoothWall GPL 0.9.9 with support included from the company. This was — as were virtually all future products — made available to purchase on CD-ROM directly from SmoothWall Ltd. by mail order.

Home Server

SmoothWall Home Server was an aborted attempt to tap into the home and residential market, using the open source platform again as a base but including SmoothGuard, and permitting customers to make email support requests directly from SmoothWall Ltd. Although announced and priced at UKP30, it was never releasedcite web| authorlink = SmoothWall Ltd.| title = Home Server Nearing Release, Screenshots Released| url = http://web.archive.org/web/20020214001153/smoothwall.co.uk/news/item/20020109.02.html| date = 2002-01-09| accessdate = 2007-02-25] .

Corporate Server / Corporate Firewall

Released on 17 December, 2001, SmoothWall Corporate Server 1.0 was the first in a long line of separate, closed source releases from SmoothWall Ltd. Forked from SmoothWall GPL 0.9.9SE, Corporate Server included additional features such as SCSI support, and the capability to increase functionality via add-on modules. These modules included SmoothGuard (content filtering proxy), SmoothZone (multiple DMZ) and SmoothTunnel (advanced VPN features). Corporate Server was designed to become the backbone of all future products from the company, with the module functionality permitting customers to select the exact level of functionality they required. Further modules have been released over time, each providing a particular set of functionality, such as traffic shaping, and e-mail anti-virus and anti-spam.

When released on 13 June, 2005, version 4 of the product saw it renamed to Corporate Firewall.

Corporate Guardian / Network Guardian

Corporate Guardian is a stand alone web proxy, cache and filtering solution. After Daniel Barron, author of DansGuardian, joined the company in April 2002, a variant of Corporate Server called SmoothWall Corporate Guardian was released, integrating a fork of Dansguardian called SmoothGuardian. SmoothGuardian was also made available as a stand-alone module for Corporate Server customers, replacing the SmoothGuard module. Corporate Guardian was renamed to Network Guardian with the release of the 2008 version.

chool Guardian

School Guardian is a variant of Network Guardian, adding Active Directory/LDAP authentication support and firewall features in a package designed specifically for use in Schools.

Advanced Firewall

Released on 9 May 2005, SmoothWall Advanced Firewall targeted the enterprise market directly by bundling Corporate Server with all available add-on modules, and adding further functionality, including Active Directory, eDirectory & LDAP authentication and the capability to use up to 20 network interfaces with external connection load balancing.

moothGuard 1000-UTM

In April 2007, the company released the SmoothGuard 1000-UTMcite web| authorlink = PC Pro| title = Product Reviews: SmoothWall UTM-1000| url = http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/125403/smoothwall-smoothguard-1000utm.html| date = 2002-01| accessdate = 2008-02-10] hardware appliance, based on a commodity Intel Core 2 Duo 1U 19-inch rack-mountable chassis. The 1000-UTM comes pre-installed with a variant of SmoothWall Advanced Firewall.

Release Dates

* 17 December 2001 - Corporate Server 1.0
* 30 May 2002 - Corporate Server 2.0
* 31 Jan 2003 - Corporate Guardian 2.0
* 15 May 2003 - Corporate Server 3.0
* 13 October 2003 - Corporate Guardian 3.0
* 18 October 2004 - Corporate Guardian 3.5
* 9 May 2005 - Advanced Firewall 1.0
* 13 June 2005 - Corporate Firewall 4.0
* 6 December 2005 - Corporate Guardian 4.0
* 8 June 2006 - Corporate Guardian 5.0
* 23 October 2006 - Corporate Firewall 5.0
* 20 November 2006 - Advanced Firewall 2.0
* 25 June 2007 - Corporate Guardian 6.0
* 31 January 2008 - School Guardian 2008
* 19 February 2008 - Corporate Firewall 2008
* 19 February 2008 - Advanced Firewall 2008
* 19 February 2008 - Network Guardian 2008

Awards

* Linux Format, Best Security Tool, 2001cite web| authorlink = SmoothWall Ltd.| title = SmoothWall Voted Best Security Tool In Linux Format Awards| url = http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2411| date = 2002-04-26| accessdate = 2007-02-25]
* SC Magazine, Best Buy SME firewall, 2005

See also

* ClarkConnect
* IPCop
* m0n0wall
* pfSense
* Shorewall

Notes

References

* Computer Reseller News: [http://www.crn.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=175802703 Advancing Firewall Protection] (2006-01-09)
* Network Computing: [http://www.networkcomputing.com/article/printFullArticle.jhtml?articleID=193003671 Rollout: SmoothWall's Corporate Guardian 5] (2006-09-28)
* Information Week: [http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197001131 Build This Cheap But Effective Firewall] (2007-01-29)

External links

* [http://www.smoothwall.net/ SmoothWall Limited]
* [http://www.smoothwall.org/ SmoothWall Open Source Project]
* [http://community.smoothwall.org/forum/ SmoothWall Community Forums]