14 DAY TRIAL // Smoothwall Express is a free firewall that is based on a GNU/Linux kernel and comes with an easy to use interface. The latest version available is now 3.1 and it’s been in the works for a long time.
The previous Smoothwall Express release was made back in April and it was hot on the heels of the Heartbleed bug that affected the OpenSSL library. That was a Release Candidate, but this version is a final one and it also deals with the Bash exploit that was just found and fixed. The two security issues rate pretty much the same on a security scale, so it's a good thing that we now have a new version of Smoothwall Express out.
Smoothwall Express has a number of very interesting features. Users will find that the firewall supports LAN, DMZ, and Wireless networks, features outbound filtering and timed access, has a simple to use Quality-of-Service (QoS), comes with detailed traffic status, and features a powerful web interface.
What's new in Smoothwall Express 3.1
Judging by the large number of features and various improvements that can be found in this release, it's safe to say that it's one of the biggest updates made until now. If you are already using this firewall, you should really consider upgrading it as soon as possible. There are simply too many good changes to ignore.
"This release is a refresh of the Smoothwall Express 3.0 foundation and a culmination of five 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 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 system problems and minor errors in the user interface were squashed," reads the official announcement.
Users will find in Smoothwall Express 3.1 that Grub Legacy is now used for all the drives, the installation in KVM, Xen, VMWare, Hyper-V, and other virtual environments should work properly, more hardware devices are now supported, and the Bash exploit has been corrected.
A complete list of changes, fixes, and other features can be found in the official announcement. You can download Smoothwall Express 3.1 right now from Softpedia.