So I got my new dedicated server up and don't want to pay for the extra hardware firewall. So i turn on windows firewall, which on the next reboot, promptly locks me out of my box. I also notice, it doesn't allow me to open all ports to specific external IP addresses, so i can't use the Planet's monitoring with it.

I looked at the VLAN filters, but that sound a bit cheasy, since you can't customize anything.

How hard is RRAS to set up to block all ports except a few? How does this differ from IPSec? Is one better than the other?

Any suggestions on free firewall solutions would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Fregas

RRAS is easy to setup but you can't open or block a range of ports, just one at a time. IPSEC is technically the better option but needs a little more technical ability to maintain. There are a bunch of scripts floating around on this forum that will get you started.

I've used and like Tiny Firewall. There is a free version for personal use only, so depending on what you use your server for, you might have to buy a license.
http://www.webmasterfree.com/tpfw.html

I pretty much use IPSecs and using the Vulnerability Scanning it did say the server is pretty secure.

I'm now using this little opensource firewall:

http://tdifw.sourceforge.net/

Really nice, all done through config files, and a registered service.
Provides userprogramrule set functionality.

Scarily easy to setup.. might be worth a look for those windows admins, who like linux more

IPSec. Get started with the registry import from analogx.com

IPSec

Here is a reference to a post I made a while back: http://forums.servermatrix.com/viewtopic.p...p=109070#109070