NetMAX Newsletter - December 2003

1. [New!] A NetMAX Holiday Gift for You!
2. [Technical] Advanced FTP Tips
3. [Support] NetMAX Support Holiday Hours
4. [General] Survey Thanks
5. [General] Let's Hear From You

1. A NetMAX Holiday Gift for You!

It's the holiday season, so we here at NetMAX wish you and yours the best of holidays! And like many of you, the NetMAX team will be taking a little time off to celebrate with our families... so be sure to check our holiday support hours listed below (item #3!), just in case you need us during the holiday!

No good holiday season would be complete without gifts, so we here at NetMAX want to give all of you one too: from now until the end of the year, you can download a free version of our NetMAX Personal Tutor! If you've ever wanted to learn more about NetMAX in the easiest way, here's your chance to do it for no cost! Just be sure to download it before the end of the year, because this gift won't be available after the holidays!

You can download your free version of the NetMAX Personal Tutor at:

www.netmax.com/order/promotions/Free_NetMAX_Personal_Tutor.zip

2. Advanced FTP Tips

Last month we provided some information on how FTP works. In this newsletter, we will discuss creating firewall rules for FTP. First, we will demonstrate the rules necessary to allow active FTP. If you remember from last month, Active FTP is designed to allow stricter firewall rules. The first of the two rules is required for allowing either type of FTP access.

FTP Rule 1:
Type: Server
Action: Accept
Protocol: tcp
Server Address: Use IP Address of the NetMAX server
Server Port: ftp
Client Address: Any
Client Port: 1024-65535
Optional (for added security):
State Filtering Server Connection Direction: Output
ESTABLISHED and RELATED checked

Active FTP Rule 2:
Type: Server
Action: Accept
Protocol: tcp
Server Address: Use IP Address of the NetMAX server
Server Port: ftp-data
Client Address: Any
Client Port: 1024-65535
Optional (for added security):
State Filtering Server Connection Direction: Input
ESTABLISHED and RELATED checked

Notice that these rules only open the ftp (21) and ftp-data (20) ports to the outside world. The other method of FTP, passive, requires the entire high port range to be opened. While this presents a greater security risk to the server, using the optional stateful firewall features, you can still attain a good level of security. Passive FTP also has the added benefit of greater FTP client support. This will require the first of the two firewall rules above, as well as the following two rules.

Passive FTP Rule 2:
Type: Input
Action: Accept
Protocol: tcp
Source Address: Any
Server Port: 1024-65535
Destination Address: Use IP Address of this NetMAX server
Client Port: 1024-65535
Optional (for added security):
ESTABLISHED and RELATED checked

Passive FTP Rule 3:
Type: Output
Action: Accept
Protocol: tcp
Source Address: Use IP Address of this NetMAX server
Server Port: 1024-65535
Destination Address: Any
Client Port: 1024-65535
Optional (for added security):
ESTABLISHED and RELATED checked

For more information about FTP, please see this article in our knowledge base:

http://www.netmax.com/fom/cache/223.html

3. NetMAX Support Holiday Hours

The NetMAX Support center will be open part-time during the holiday season (December 20th to January 5th). Support and shipping will only be available on Mondays and Tuesdays during this period, during normal NetMAX Support hours (9am to 6pm EST). Orders received after 2pm EST on those Tuesdays may not ship until the following Monday.

The normal NetMAX support schedule will resume on January 5th, 2004.

Thanks for your patience, and Happy Holidays from the NetMAX team!

4. Survey Thanks

Last month, we asked your help in planning the next version of NetMAX, via a 5 question survey. The first 100 respondents were entered into a drawing to win a free Magnia SG20.

Unfortunately there could only be one winner... so congratulations to Richard G. Elen of Brideswell Associates Ltd. Thanks for your input on our survey, and we hope you enjoy your new Magnia!

And to everyone else who contributed: thank you for helping us plan the next version of NetMAX!

5. Let's Hear From You!

We would very much like to hear from you. Tell us how you use NetMAX and Linux in your business... or what you would like to see in NetMAX 5... or maybe even what you'd like us to add to the Personal Tutor! You can contribute your input to the NetMAX Forum:

http://www.netmax.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

or to our general NetMAX contact form:

http://www.netmax.com/partners/contacts.html

Let us know about your likes, dislikes, and general comments. We are especially interested in the type of additions to NetMAX Server you would like to see as we continue to develop the NetMAX line.

Thank you!