What would a good network security set up for a small business? Fire wall, VPN,

Question

What would a good network security set up for a small business? Fire wall, VPN, WPA2 (for wireless), Email security and Web security. Also Anti-virus, Spam and Data Mining. Looking for mainly an enterprise level. Free or relatively cheap. I was thinking my best option would be using different companies for each requirement but wasn’t too sure if that would be 100% possible or the greatest idea in the long run. Is there a better way to put it all in one provider of these services or not so much? If someone can help me with what programs/ network monitoring tools to use to best fit my problems. THANKS!

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

For a small business, free versions of commercial products will not work properly as they charge a hefty amount for updates.I have mentioned some of the best Softwares for small business owners which are open source/Cheap and can be easily setup:

Firewall:

PFSense
free & open source firewall with lots of features and large support groups with proper documentation for quick setup.

VPN:

OpenVPN:

It’s an open source Virtual Private Network solution that is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems and offers a secure environment to connect to the private network.

WPA2: Enterprise mode

It requires an external authentication server, called a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server to handle the 802.1X authentication of users. You should use a free and open source server FreeRADIUS, which uses plain-text files for configuration and command-line for administration. It is primarily meant for Linux/Unix machines but can also run on Windows.

Email Security:

MailScanner Email is open source software released under that runs on most flavors of Linux and integrates with Linux-based email gateways It has also an option to install SpamAssassin and ClamAV on top of it, which are best tools for stopping spam messages.

Web Security:

W3af is one of the most popular web application attack and audit framework. This framework aims to provide a better web application penetration testing platform. It is developed using Python & it can be very helpful in determining the vulnerabilities across Web app and fixing them.

Antivirus:

ClamAV is the free and open source but it can not be centrally managed.I have not heard about any other Enterprise level Antivirus for free.So, the best solution would be to contact the vendors directly and asking them if they have pricing discount or programs for SME.

So, most of the Softwares in the lists are from separate communities but they will serve your purpose well.There is a little better way of using a provider called Untangle which is a router/firewall appliance package along with inbuilt Antivirus but it only scans incoming traffic for virus signatures, but it can't scan anything outside of itself.

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