[PLUG] Windows firewall

[Paul Heinlein]

On Thu, 19 Oct 2006, Ed Sawicki wrote:

> I've had my head buried in writing a book for the past few months 
> and I've not kept up with the latest Windows stuff. Does the latest 
> version of Windows server (what's it called now? Is it shipping 
> yet?) have a built-in firewall whose functionality comes anywhere 
> close to Linux Netfilter/iptables?

Afaict, you have three choices with Windows Server 2003:

1. Simple TCP/IP filtering on a per-interface basis:

   Network Connections -> $INTERFACE -> Local Area Connection
   Properties -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties ->
   Advanced TCP/IP Settings -> TCP/IP filtering

   The default is to let all traffic pass; exceptions are blocked.

2. Stateful packet analysis/filtering using Internet Connection
   Firewall (ICF). When enabled, ICF's default setting is to
   deny unsolicited inbound traffic. Exceptions must be made
   explicit. There's a logging module, but it's not as configurable
   as netfilter.

   Note that ICF can't do masquerading; that's handled by the
   Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) application.

   Both ICF and ICS are included with the most popular versions of
   Windows Server 2003.

3. For extra $$, you can purchase the Microsoft Internet Security
   and Acceleration (ISA) Server, a software suite that application-
   level filtering and proxy capabilities.

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> www.madboa.com