Linux Solutions

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide you with instructions and guidance on how to install a firestarter in Ubuntu. First of all, let’s get familiar with Firestarter. Firestarter is an Open Source visual firewall program.

Install Firestarter in Ubuntu
Now, let’s go through steps as required to install a firestarter in Ubuntu.

- Please run the following command.
sudo apt-get instal firestarter
By running this command will complete the installation process.
- Now, if you would like to view the fire starter programmem, then simply go to System—>Administration—>Firestarter

- When the screen is displayed, please click on forward

- Now choose Network device setup and click on forward

- after choosing the Network device, simply select if you have any internet connection sharing and click on forward

- Now, you have to click on check box next to start firewall now and click on save

- After going through the above step, now you will be able to view the firestarter GUI

Please note that every time firestarter starting GUI you will be prompted for a root password. However, if you want to skip the root password request, then all you nee do do is to go through following steps as mentioned below:

- export EDITOR=gedit && sudo visudo
following line needs to be added in
/etc/sudoers file
%ruchi ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/firestarter

- please replace %ruchi by your the name of the user or the group which can use sudo and do the modification.

- This can be tested by using the procedure as mentioned below:
sudo – K
sudo /usr/sbin/firestarter

If you try to open it, you shouldn’t be prompted for a password

- In the end, you should add firestarter to startup programs list. This can be done by
system—> Preferences—>Sessions you should see the following screen in this you need to click on startup programs and click on add you should see a popup box prompting for startup command in this you need to enter the following command and click ok two times.

sudo /usr/sbin/firestarter

Firewall Policy
Please note that Firestarted has a default policy. According to this policy, new inbound connections from the Internet to the firewall or client hosts are blocked.

Remember that the firewall host is freely allowed to establish new connections and all client hosts are allowed to establish new connections to the Internet, but not to the firewall host.

Firewall policy allows normal Internet usage such as web browsing and e-mail on the secured hosts, but blocks any attempts to access network services from the outside and shields the local network.

If you are interested in designing your own policy the you should know about inbound and outbound policy.

Inbound policy
It is important to know that all inbound network traffic that is not in response to a connection established by a secured host is always denied. Any changes to inbound policy can be made on the inbound policy section of the policy page in Firestarter.

Outbound policy
The purpose of outbound traffic policy is to specify the types of network traffic that are allowed out from the secured network to the Internet. Firestarter has two modes of operation when it comes to implementing outbound policy, a permissive (which is the default) and a restrictive mode.

- If you want to create new policy you need to click on the policy tab and ensure which policy (i.e., inbound or outbound) you want in the editing selection

- After that you click on policy from the top menu
and
- then click on add from the top menu
- A popup box will be displayed with a request for allowing connections from from ip,host or network,enter the comment and - -
- click on add

In the same way, you can add the outbound policy.

I hope that this tutorial proved helpful for you.