I haven't received the digest yet, but apparently there is some concern about Smoothwall having a "backdoor" built into it. This is utter nonsense, most likely propagated by the people at IPCOP to justify their stolen version of Smoothwall's GPL'd software. The ONLY thing that happens when configuring a Smoothwall is that it's first contact with the Internet after initial installation the software sends a brief message back to Smoothwall. I quote from their FAQ document: ================================= The InvBot reports back the following NONPERSONAL data and we don't actually have to tell anyone we're reporting back at all - but in the full edition the docs clearly state that: "agreeing to use SmoothWall is a two way relationship. You as a company/individual will comply with the terms of the GNU General Public License and also respect the rights of all developers whose code lies within the project boundries. SmoothWall requires you to automatically register the following information so that we can gauge our audience and also continue to develop SmoothWall for the future. SmoothWall will report back automatically the following data, no data concerning you or your civil liberties is infringed upon and no data collected will be used than for the purpose of continued development of this project." Information collated: -SmoothWall version installed -CPU Vender name -CPU model name -CPU Megahertz -RAM -HDD size -connection type -First 2 octets of IP address (for geographical location) This is ESSENTIAL information for us to guage usage figures that are TOTALLY correct and also for us to see where we need to push effort. It also gives us control over where we need to put FTP servers, support effort and also where to push SmoothWall with user groups, local IT press and resources on the ground. ======================================== Within another document I saved from SmoothWall, specifically about IPCOP, they note that the "developers" of IPCOP were junior, tertiary members on the very fringe of the SmoothWall team (no core developers or major contributors of the project) and some of there were even ejected from the community team. To be quite blunt, IPCOP stole SmoothWall's work and put their own name on it. I have PDFs of everything I have written here, if anyone wants a copy, I would be more than happy to send it to you. I find IPCOP's actions distasteful at a minimum, downright criminal at the max. -- Todd Young 7079 Dawn Ave. E. Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076 _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list