[ale] Smoothwall 2.0 or IPCop 1.3.0?

[Jerald Sheets]

IPCop here.

Love it.


I left the smootwall crowd, frankly, because they were a bunch of real
dicks.  I'm sorry, but there's no other way to say it.  

The whole thing in the support manual about RTFM and read this first and
that first, blah blah was funny and all, but there's a line...a line
between being a jerk and giving customer service.  Sure, we all hate it,
and I'm on his side with everything in the manual, but when you start
roaming your own forums to give answers to (presumably) piss off people
for what seems to be no reason, I start looking for another product.

I saw people in the forums asking valid questions whose answers were
either hidden deeply in the forums two years before, or in a small
one-sentence blurb somewhere on the website (that would literally take
hours upon hours to find) and getting JUMPED ON by the support staff.  I
understand "RTFM", but when the team starts saying "RTFM, you f*cking
moron your mother must've hated you", I start looking to move on.  (this
is hyperbole.  do not email me saying this couldn't have happened,
because it didn't..it's an example)

Originally, when IPCop was created, it's whole purpose in life was to be
a friendly alternative to the jerks at Smoothwall.  I personally felt
the brunt of their ire once or twice, and I didn't think my questions
were out of line, I had searched the entire printed manual base *AND*
done Google searches.  the treatment they were giving users was uncalled
for.  Essentially, the IPCop product was identical to Smoothwall in the
first few iterations with some graphics and text changes.  Now, they
have their own project plan and are growing in a direction on their
own.  

I swear by the project *AND* the support staff.

It just works.  (tm)

--jms



On Thu, 2004-02-05 at 09:24, Keith Morris - IQ wrote:
> James,
> I use Smoothwall 2.0 express beta (I know the release version is out, 
> but haven't got around to upgrading) here at the office with about 40 
> workstations and laptops pushing through it.  It has run flawlessly from 
> the start.  There are good community forums for smoothwall as well.
> 
> I also replaced a linksys router with this box.  It's nice to be able to 
> recycle a Pentium 200 and make it a super-stable and fast firewall.
> 
> I have never used IPCop, so can't give any experience there.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> --
> Keith Morris
> Creative Director
> Design / Effects
> IQ Television Group
> http://www.iqtv.com
> 
> James Sumners wrote:
> > I am considering replacing a Linksys WRT54G with a Linux box. The Linksys is
> > working fine but it doesn't quite cut it. My question to you is, would you
> > recommend Smoothwall 2.0 over IPCop 1.3.0 or vice versa? I don't really want to
> > sit down and write my own firewall scripts and web front end when there is
> > already a solution.
> > 
> > I know that IPCop is a fork of Smoothwall but it forked a long time ago. I will
> > be playing with both of them in a virtual environment but it may be some time
> > before I get that set up and I would like to know if someone already has an
> > opinion of one over the other (e.g. this one does this where that one doesn't
> > type stuff).
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
-- 
Jerald M. Sheets jr.
Sr. UNIX Systems Administrator
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center
225.765.8734
1024-bit DSA key, ID 9732BD09, created 2003-11-11

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part