Conventions

FireWall-1 runs on multiple operating systems, but there are two basic kinds of platforms: UNIX and Windows NT. My personal bias is UNIX; therefore, all pathnames and the like, unless otherwise specified, are always given in their UNIX form. For those of you who use Windows NT and are not familiar with UNIX conventions, the following paragraph describes how to convert the paths from a UNIX form to a Windows form.

Almost all paths given include FWDIR, which is an environment variable that should be defined and points to the directory under which FireWall-1 is installed. To reference this variable on a UNIX platform, it is preceded by a dollar sign (e.g., $FWDIR). On a Windows platform, the variable is surrounded by percent signs (e.g., %FWDIR%). Path components on a UNIX platform are separated by forward slashes (e.g., /), whereas on Windows, they are separated by back slashes (e.g., \).

To convert the path $FWDIR/bin to its Windows equivalent, replace $FWDIR with %FWDIR% and replace the forward slash with a back slash. On Windows, the path should look like this: %FWDIR%\bin.

Unless otherwise specified, all commands mentioned throughout the text should work on both UNIX and Windows. Examples of commands that you type in (and their output) appear in Courier font. I also use this font for filenames and daemon processes. The commands you type in appear in a bold Courier font. If what you type in does not echo back on the screen (usually because it is a password), this is reflected in a bold italic Courier font.

To put it all together, the following sample output results from running the UNIX passwd command to change my password:

# passwd dwelch
Enter login password: abc123
New password: def456
Re-enter new password: def456
passwd (SYSTEM): passwd successfully changed for dwelch
#

The pound/hash sign (#) is the UNIX prompt and is typically used for the Super-User account. I type in the command passwd dwelch (which echoes to the screen). I am then prompted to enter my old password, abc123, which does not echo to the screen. Next, I am prompted to enter a new password, def456, which also does not echo to the screen. I am then asked to confirm my new password as my password choice, which means I type it again. Finally, I am told my password has been changed successfully.

Numbered FAQs appear starting in Chapter 4. For a full listing of these questions see the list starting on page xxiii.