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Thread: Fresh System Administrator

  1. #1
    Senior Member PacketThirst's Avatar
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    Question Fresh System Administrator

    Hey folks !! ..

    I'm not all that new to networking.I've read several manuals and books on networking.

    But i really lack practical experience as i didn't have access to a network during the time i

    did my studies. Now i've been made the system administrator of my college!. The former

    administrator advised me not to put up a firewall as it would really slowdown the connection(

    64kbps ).He thinks that noone would ever wanna hack into the network. I know its not

    safe to practice security by obscurity. There isn't any data of great importance too in these

    systems.The network is just used for students to access the internet. I know there

    are a lot of experienced people out there in AO. I really need your advice.

  2. #2
    Computer Forensics
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    Get a firewall..get a firewall...get a firewall. It's as simple as that.
    Antionline in a nutshell
    \"You\'re putting the fate of the world in the hands of a bunch of idiots I wouldn\'t trust with a potato gun\"

    Trust your Technolust

  3. #3
    ********** |ceWriterguy
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    Lesson 1 I learned wayback in the day. Always use someone else's computers to do your dirty work. The prime targets of choice for this are colleges, because normally their security is lax.

    Guess what? your school fits the mold. Bro, without that firewall, you're proxy heaven for some pretty nasty stuff going on, both from within and outside your school. Lock it down. Lock it down hard. Getting the firewall is just the first step.

    Congrats on the promotion and luck to you!
    Even a broken watch is correct twice a day.

    Which coder said that nobody could outcode Microsoft in their own OS? Write a bit and make a fortune!

  4. #4
    I think you will get the same response from everyone here; get a firewall in place even if its a free software based one. That would be better than nothing
    There wasn\'t any paper used here, but millions of electrons were terribly inconvenienced

  5. #5
    AO Ancient: Team Leader
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    A firewall will not slow down your connection.... It might have done a 1000 years ago but we have advanced a little since the abacus.
    Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you.....
    \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

  6. #6
    I totally understand your situation. I was the fresh admin with nothing but book experience beforehand myself, as I didn't have a network to really learn on either. That was last December. Many AO threads and a few months later, and I'm starting to get a pretty good grip on things (a lot of thanks due to the above poster inparticular).

    Hang in there and ask us lots of questions. You'll rack up practical experience in no time now that you're behind a real network.

    But I agree with everyone else. Get a firewall. It shouldn't hurt your network performance. You may have no critical data to protect, but your systems can still be used by attackers for malicious purposes, i.e., being turned into zombies, etc.

  7. #7
    Senior Member PacketThirst's Avatar
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    So tigershark .. r u saying that a firewall won't affect the speed ?

  8. #8
    Senior Member
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    facts of life:

    1) yes, some will hack your computer even with that bandwidth. Just because
    a) kiddies have nothing betther to do;
    b) sometimes is a automated process (a bot) the invade a system; it doesnt matter if t is 10Mb or a 33k dial up - every resource has a value
    2) As Tiger notice, it wont slowdown a connection - depending on of characteristics of firewall, it can even get your connection better - buffer contention, compressing - and a proxy-cache will improve your http response time
    3) Prolly that admin you've mencioned has no knowledge of firewall and saying that crap he can avoid to learn it.
    Meu sítio

    FORMAT C: Yes ...Yes??? ...Nooooo!!! ^C ^C ^C ^C ^C
    If I die before I sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to encrypt.
    If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to brake.

  9. #9
    Senior Member PacketThirst's Avatar
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    Thanks all ...... I'll get a firewall as soon as possible...

  10. #10
    Senior Member
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    Yupper-roo
    Get a firewall. The "dont use XXXX on the network it will slow it down" is used a lot for virus scanning and firewalls, etc.

    The real answer to that is improperly configured firewalls will slow it down. I know a colledge admin that uses the same reasoning, and refuses to wall up his network. He cames he has never been hacked..... I just add never that he knows of. And it has been a major issue with some of the other business that deal with the school, but he hasn't budged yet.

    Sighh. Get a firewall.
    ~ I'm NOT insane! I've just been in a bad mood for the last 30 years! ~ Somepeople are like Slinky's: Not good for anything, but the thought of pushing them down the stairs brings a smile to your face!

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