[announce] NYC*BUG Wed Sept 6th

[NYC*BUG Announcement]

Isaac `Ike` Levy on m0n0wall and PFSense

Back to the Soho Apple Store!

6:30 pm, Soho Apple Store at 103 Prince Street

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), it`s difficult for a business not to choose to simply buy
off the shelf SOHO routers and networking gear.The web management gui`s
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 compitent 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 PC`s 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 doesn`t 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. He has spoken frequently on a number of topics at various venues,
particulary on the issue of FreeBSD`s jail (8).