Smoothwall / News: Recent posts

As we continue to improve your favourite firewall, we of the Smoothwall Express team announce the release of Update8/SP3 for Smoothwall Express 3.1. This update addresses a number of problems and deficiencies as well as some housekeeping work. Note that this is a large update (around 170MB), due in part to the latest collection of firmware, and to the number of package version bumps.

We found insurmountable problems with linux v3.4, so we bumped it to v3.16. Be sure to create a backup of your system before applying this update; it does not preserve the former kernel(s) because newer programs won't work with it correctly. A side effect is that the new kernel supports newer hardware; but be aware that linux 3.16 was released during August 2014, thus Update8/SP3 may not support the latest hardware. As usual, OpenSSL and Snort have been updated.... read more

As part of our effort to maintain regular updates, the Smoothwall Express Team released Update 3 for Smoothwall Express 3.1 today.

This update contains fixes, enhancements, new packages and new features for Smoothwall Express 3.1. We added a number of presentation improvements to the user interface. We bumped dhcpcd, miniupnpd, ClamAV, OpenSSL, Snort, Squid and a few other package versions. We added support for UPS management. We patched iptACCOUNT to provide 64-bit counters. We added squidclamav (and its c-icap dependencies) and rebuilt squid to be SSL-ready to prepare for coming improvements to Smoothwall Express' filtering capabilities. We added a couple drivers to the kernel-drivers package, and bumped driver versions to the latest. We added more mod hooks to system scripts; they further reduce the number of changes mods must make to system files when installed and make it even easier for community members to develop mods.... read more

With the release of Update 10, we've decided to retire SmoothWall Express 3.0. We need to concentrate our efforts on improving 3.1 and preparing the next version that will follow 3.1.

All users are encouraged to upgrade to Smoothwall Express 3.1; it is essentially 3.0 with many oddities fixed, various improvements, and several new features.

Update 10 is the last expected update for 3.0. If a serious security problem is found, we may try to address it with an update if we can. But there are no guarantees. 3.0's compiler is now too old to build some software packages; ClamAV v0.98.x is one example.... read more

The SmoothWall Express development team released Update 10 for SmoothWall Express 3.0 today, 21 August 2015.

This update contains several package upgrades and additions, fixes for several security vulnerabilities, and fixes for several minor issues.

• Upgraded: zlib (v1.2.8), bzip2 (v1.0.6), bash (v2.05b, patch level 13), OpenSSL (v0.9.8zf), Apache's httpd (v2.2.27), the daq library (v2.0.2) and Snort (v2.9.7.2).... read more

The Smoothwall Community are pleased as punch to announce the release of
the long awaited Smoothwall Express 3.1 Firewall.

This release is a refresh of v3.0's foundation and a culmination of 5½ years of effort that began with the Roadster Test Vehicle. The build system has been thoroughly worked over, and the user interface has been freshened with several presentation improvements.

The vast majority of the work was done 'under the hood'. Here are just a few of the software upgrades: Linux 3.4.104, glibc 2.18, gcc 4.7.3, perl 5.14.4, squid 3.3.13, httpd 2.2.27, iptables 1.4.14, and openswan 2.6.41. Some of these updates and other new packages are ready to enable new features such as HTTPS proxying in squid. In addition to these updates, numerous bugs present in v3.0 that caused hard-to-reproduce problems or minor errors in the user interface, and other latent faults, were squashed.... read more

With the third release candidate made available, Smoothwall Express 3.1 development is well on its way toward completion. Version 3.1 is basically v3.0 with a new skeleton and a freshly laundered and pressed suit. There are only a few new features. For all the details, please visit Smoothwall Express 3.1 Third Release Candidate Available at the Smoothwall community forum.

There have been 3 update releases at the time of this news item, and we always recommend implementing the updates as soon as possible. They include bug fixes, point release increases on the major components and enhancements. Please visit our forums for more detailed information.

A VMware virtual image is also now available, which is compatible with VMware ESX server.

Please download and test and report any issues on the forums.

SmoothWall is a best-of-breed Internet firewall/router, designed to run on commodity hardware, and to give an easy-to-use administration interface to those using it. Built using open source and Free software, it's distributed under the GNU Public License.

SmoothWall is very proud to announce the long-awaited final release of the worlds favorite free network firewall - SmoothWall Express 3.0 (Codename Polar).... read more

The vmware virtual image of the current version of Smoothwall 2 has been uploaded for you to look at and test before committing it to a live server. If you have any questions then please visit the projects forums.
Cod

SmoothWall is pleased to announce the much-awaited release of the beta, feature-complete version of Express 3.0. Code-named "Degu", 3.0 is the latest version of our successful and long-running express firewall software and incorporates a number of new features and improvements.

For more information please consult www.smoothwall.org

The latest upgrade patch(patch9) has been released for general availability here. Please read the installation instructions in the notes next to the file download.

We are pleased to announce the release of SmoothWall GPL 2.0 beta 5, codename "Orient".

There have been quite a few changes since beta 4, spread of the course over the last couple of months, including:

- 2.4.21 kernel
- NTP time sync
- timezone now set in the UI not in the setup program
- updates lists can now be retrieved through a (passwordless) http proxy
- tweaks to the UI
- several other updates and bug fixes. ... read more

We are pleased to announce the release of SmoothWall GPL 2.0 beta 4, codename "Mallard".

After the successful releases of betas 1 ('metro') and 2 ('bullet'), beta 4 includes major updates to the networking capabilities of SmoothWall GPL. Lawrence has slaved over a hot keyboard, and melted many a modem to improve the support for the U.S. Robotics SureConnect USB ADSL modem, and also USB ADSL modems based on the ECI chipset, such as the Fujitsu FDX310. Feedback is especially sought for ECI-based modems, so if you connect using one, please let us know, whether you have successful connections or not! Users with the new-style USB Home Highway ISDN connections from BT will now be able to connect their USB-enabled SmoothWall GPL 2.0 directly to the wall socket, thanks to the sterling work of Alan Hourihane. ... read more

The global security project SmoothWall is pleased to release version 1.0 of the ever popular SmoothWall GPL firewall distribution. This version builds upon the 0.9.x series of distributions dating back to July 2000 through 4 releases and subsequent patches.

With support for USB ADSL, Cable, ISDN, Ethernet, Analogue modems and a plethora of internet connectivity options SmoothWall retains the capability to offer something for everyone.... read more

the beta2 release notes page at http://smoothwall.org/community/beta/releases/bullet.html for more information and download links.

Yes, we skipped a number! Visit the beta1 release notes page at http://smoothwall.org/community/beta/releases/metro.html for more information and download links.

As a Christmas present to the users and the community, we've built a pre-patched version of SmoothWall 0.9.9 to help people deploy the latest bug-fixed version as fast as they can.

See http://www.smoothwall.org/gpl/about/release/0.9.9-se.html for more information, and http://www.smoothwall.org/gpl/get/download/ to download the new ISO.

People, the new version of SmoothWall is out in the wild. Either grab it from our project area here on Sourceforge or from Tucows or our mirrors as it filters down.

New features are listed on the Smoothwall.org website. Briefly - 15 native languages support, IPSEC and PPTP VPN, Intrustion Detection, new front end, USB ADSL support, New Firewall Logging, and lots lots more with the same cool webfrontend management system.... read more

We've uploaded the build of SmoothWall 0.9.8 to Sourceforge as well as the North American and European mirrors.

THIS IS NOT AN UPGRADE - ALL SMOOTHWALL USERS PLEASE REPLACE YOUR CURRENT BUILD WITH 0.9.8

New and improved features:

Linux compatible internal and external analogue modems to v90
ISDN autoprobing and automated setup for supported PCI and ISA cards
Multiple ethernet card for customers with ADSL/Cable (including Cable DCHP clients) and ethernet users
Full firewall logging and graphical auditing with graphical throughput indication
Full kernel logging facilities
Embedded Java SSH client
DHCP server for internal clients
Linux 2.2.18 IPSec kernel
VPN binaries shipped compiled ready for use
Proxy server with caching facility ... read more

SmoothWall 0.9.8, featuring a new setup program with autoprobing of ISDN cards, and support for multinic configs (including a optional DMZ) is available!

Go get it! This is the first beta for 0.9.8. It has TONES of new things, including real ISDN and multinic support. Another beta will be available in the next few days.

ftp://ftp2.smoothwall.org/people/aslak/smoothwall-0.9.8-breezer.iso

22meg.

We are launching the pre-release VPN testing kit - this is a hackers kit customised to fit SmoothWall. There is also now the ISDN and Dial On Demand kits that will make their way into 0.9.8 sometime soon when we get dual ethernet sorted.

We today, after testing and completing basic documentation released a select number of 0.9.6 iso images to the development team across the globe. We are very happy with the results of our work and Lawrence has been cracking code all night and day for four days to get the ISO released in time to hit deadlines for FutureNet Publishing in the UK who are featuring 0.9.6 as an upcoming Cover CD feature on one of their magazines.... read more

This is an update on where we're up to with regards the project. This is a brief report so bear with me, the updated monthly PDF which will now become a regular feature on the 5th of each calendar month will be freely available from SourceForge and the SmoothWall website later this week.

SmoothWall has continued to get really good editorial cover this month in the IT press and Linux media both online and also traditional printed press. Lawrence and I were very proud to see SmoothWall described in such glowing terms and are both grateful for the solid backing of Wildfire PR and Renauld Larsen at VA Marketing, and the advice and support of Nick Veitch of Linux Format and Trevor Parsons and Maggie Meer of Linux User in the UK.... read more