Yeah, I'd look for the Wiley book, that's the best "Get it up an running" book I've read off hand. I got it at B&N, there are a numbe ro fothers, and I'd be willing to bet that there is an excellent O'Reilly book for this, but I just didn't have the cash for the O'Reilly. I'd also get on the firewalls mailing list if you are going to be spending any serious amount of time on this little monster. They are a HUGE help and are usually very cordial to newbies. Depending upon what you want to do and what platform you choose there are other lists and such that concentrate strictly on walls from a specific discipline, I know there are bsd specific and Linux specific lists.
I'd also put some time into an IDS, your firewall is a good start, but your IDS can really be a life saver in the event of a break in, or just any sort of strangeness, we used Snort to find and root out the worm infected Win systems where I work.
I know this sounds like a mountain, and there is a lot ot take in when you start, but it's do-able, no doubt that I've seen some pretty non-technical people put together a reasonable firewall and security setup with just a bit of help and a lot of reading.


HTH,



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