How'd this get started?: Raphael Vallazza: Basically we wanted to provide a security tool that was simple and
flexible. We started spending about two months of development to add
some features and a more pleasant and intuitive interface to IPCop.
Nevertheless we faced various obstacles mainly due to some IPCop
architectural drawbacks, like the lack of a package management system
and the fact that, being based on Linux from scratch, we had to
re-compile the whole distribution for each change we would make. So we
decided to start developing EFW, adding the RPM support and yum for
updates, creating a build system that could be more complete and
efficient. This choice allowed us to step away from IPCop and to proceed
in a direction that we believe is more suitable for a professional
product that has also an option for valuable commercial support.
What do you think are its best features?
Endian Firewall is very fast and easy to install, with an extremely
clear and intuitive Web interface. Its most outstanding feature is
allowing the network administrator to manage complex tools with a
surprising simplicity.
With just a few clicks you can configure the firewall adding and
changing the rules, or you can configure Proxies for Web traffic, E-Mail
traffic (POP3 and SMTP) managing content, virus and spam filtering in a
breeze. Thanks to the OpenVPN integration you can even implement a VPN
(even a bridged one) in few and easy steps.
What is cooking for future releases?
The idea is going on enriching Endian Firewall with many more modules
and features.
At the moment only the base module is available for download, but all
the other modules mentioned on our website are almost finished and will
be released in the next weeks. Additional modules and features like
Intrusion Prevention System are in planning stage and will be released
to the community as soon as the are ready.
As a matter of fact Endian is planning to create two parallel versions
of Endian Firewall: One for the community and mainly supported by the
community in collaboration with Endian and the second one targeted for
business use that will be commercially supported by Endian.
The community edition will feature faster release cycles and will be
more bleeding edge, including all the latest features everyone likes.
Updates will be available for everyone by a yum repository but the
lifetime will be shorter, about a few months after next release.
The commercial version will be more stable and tested by Endian
featuring at least 3 years of lifetime. It will guarantee immediate
security updates through Endian Network (an update/package management
and system monitoring platform) that will be available for all
registered customers.
Our hope is to create a big community surrounding Endian Firewall that
receives help and support from Endian, but also returning back support
to Endian for testing, development and new ideas, in full respect of the
open source ideals. Both, the community and the commercial version will
be open source.
What do you consider its biggest challenger?
There are some very good projects like Monowall and IPCop itself that
offer similar services, but we believe that the synergy between a
company (that wants to create a complete and professional product) and
the open source community can give our firewall that extra-gear that
everything else lacks of. We will do everything we can to support the
community and to provide a valuable and 100% open source product, and we
are convinced that this will guarantee the success of Endian Firewall,
even from a commercial point of view.
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