ClarkConnect – OpenSource Firewall Intrusion Prevention networking and collabration suite

ClarkConnect is an all-in-one Opensource networking suite from Point Clark Networks. It is a full blown security suite on one front with Stateful firewall protection, Intrusion Detection and prevention, Maile Gateway with Antivirus, Anti-spam and Anti-phishing support, proxy & web content filtering, peer to peer connection filtering for web protection while is also a networking suite with IPSec and PPTP support, bandwdith and system monitoring and a server with web-server, Database server support, file & print sharing, mail server, system and mail backup. All built on a cut down redhat linux with a good web interface.

ClarkConnect is an opensource winner with all the features are directly enabled by opensource packages.

The top features of ClarkConnect are

• Statefule Firewall with DMZ interface enabled, NAT and port forwarding support
• Intrusion Detection (Snort) and Preention (snortsam)
• Peer to Peer connection prevention
• MultiWAN support with bandwidth monitoring
• VPN support with IPSec and PPTP support
• Webproxy, Content Filtering, Popup/banner adblocker
• Email Server support (POP, IMAP and SMTP) and webmail support
• Dns, DynDNS, DHCP Support
• Mail Gateway with antispam (spamassasin,Dspam,greylisting), Antivirus (ClamA), phishing filter,  Mail Disclaimer support
• Groupware and Flexshare
• Webserver (LAMP)
• File and Print Sharing, FTP server
• Network Backup

For more detailed listing of features, click here

ClarkConnect comes in three different editions as Enterprise, Office and Community editions. The Community edition is a free edition with no support for the serices and hence is good for Home and Small Office. The Office edition has all of the network and security features enabled with the exception of the Grouware support and the all enabled version is the Enterprise edition. While the Office and Enterprise editions are commercial, the cost is not very pricey.

For a comparision on the versions, click here

A detailed hardware requirement can be found on ClarkConnect website with downloads available here.

A Reader's Toolbox

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