[ILUG] Broadband querry

[Kevin Dobey]

> Kae Verens [mailto:kverens at webworks.ie] Said ...
> I have two ethernet cards in my "firewall" box. One connected 
> directly 
> to the router, and the other to the house LAN.
> 
> The router side is connected directly using an ordinary 
> ethernet cable, 
> not a crossover, which I found handy. The connection is configured to 
> run PPPoE.

Now there's a question - in fact 3 questions. Obviously if you the ability
do double bolt your front door you would **BUT** ... 
Given the configuration we're talking about there, and given my own - it got
me thinking....

I have a Zyxel 600  (623r-t I think) form IOL. It's a router and provides
DHCP and NAT - which I use and works very well - it also handles two
simultaneous VPN connections (actually one VPN and one PPTP AFAIK) from
different machines on my home network to different corporate networks ! So
I'm a happy little bunny !!

First thing I did was make sure I was running latest firmware. 
All unnecessary ports are closed - when you nmap a number of ports show up
as "filtered" - which I can't seem to do anything about - but don't seem
"open". 
on my home network I have a mix of machines (including windows). I have the
ability to map ports from my router to my home LAN - but I don't. 
Questions:
1) What REALLY is my exposure to risk here ? IT's all NAT'ed and I run with
latest patches and a up-to-date virus checker yada-yada. do I REALLY need a
DMZ ? - which I'll need to punch holes in for VPN stuff anyway. 

2) Now lets say I have a Linux box and open port 80 on my router point to
linux with apache and maybe ssh too - non production stuff here - just for
giggles.  Now - same question as 1. 

3) Take question 2 and make the Linux box Redhat 9 - and add the fact that I
am not a professional sys admin and I don't really want to do much more then
run up2date every now and again (or auto-updater of choice). Should I be
using Fedora with End of life rolling up fast on redhat stuff. 


Note - I don't want ot make this a Windows question but - on the XP boxes
(which are the ones I am more worried about) I can't turn on the firewall
do-hikey on teh ethernet device because VPN stops working if I do. 

Thoughts ?
Thanks 
Kevin
P.S. I think I left my router and my wireless Access Point on this morning -
so wheel on by my house. :)