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I have five different Windows installs inside of Mint 9 64 bit. On Windows machines, you normally use the default Windows one.
However, I prefer Comodo Firewall over Windows, it's more secure. Will it cause problems, being installed inside of Mint via VirtualBox? I asked this question on the Windows Forums, but they were smart asses, and directed me to post this on a Linux Forum, bring that Mint 9 is the primary OS in question.
Thanks for any responses in regard to my inquiry.
Cat
Your Windows forums users are not very bright then.
I don't see any Comodo Firewall for Linux, so you won't be installing it in Mint. The Windows VM's operate as independent systems. The only tie they have to Mint is in the networking.
If the VM is running with the NIC in "bridged network" mode, the VM appears on the network like any other WIndows machine. If you normally use a firewall, you may want it in this case.
If the VM NIC is running in NAT mode, the VM can get "out" but nothing can get in to the VM unless you set up some type of forwarding. A firewall in the VM would be redundant to the NAT firewall it's already behind.
Virtualbox can be run on a Windows host and the same info applies.
Thank you very much. Although Comodo doesn't have a firewall for Mint, every Windows OS should have one installed, just as the user needs an AV. Since XP, all versions of Windows ships with a firewall. Even Mint has one (of it's own), but I've not messed with it.
As you probably know, the firewall is for intrusion prevention. While I doubt that an intrusion can occur through the VirtualBox install of the OS (inside of Mint), with Windows, you really need to play it safe. I need these VM's for various purposes, mainly for using hardware that doesn't give software support for Linux.
It's not a Linux issue, many would blame the distro, but I have enough intelligence to know the difference, and it's mainly hardware providers lack of support for Linux, not Linux's lack of support for the hardware. Many Linux first timers are not open minded enough to realize this, and discards Linux as trash. I'll admit to some guilt in that regard myself, but that was 2 years ago. For the last year and a half, I've been happily using & learning Mint at my own pace.
Truth is, had I never seen a Windows computer, I'd probably be a very productive Linux user by now.
Cat
That would depend on the way the guest NIC is configured. From a network perspective, it's just another Windows machine.Quote:
While I doubt that an intrusion can occur through the VirtualBox install of the OS (inside of Mint)
The effectiveness of firewalls is *highly* dependent on their designed goals and correct configuration. If you are running a print server that is susceptible to compromising, a firewall will not prevent that. Further, if the FW allows any "outgoing" connections by any processes, it will not help once the process is compromised.Quote:
As you probably know, the firewall is for intrusion prevention.
Thanks a lot for your input, HROAdmin26, your answers have cleared up a lot of things for me. There are still things that I need to learn (don't we all), I didn't get to where I'm at overnight, and learning every day.
Now, if I just can face that command line.......................
Cat