Dowse is atransparentproxyfacilitatingthe awarenessof ingoing andoutgoingconnections,from, to, andwithin a localarea network. Dowse providesa central pointof soft controlfor all localtraffic: fromARP traffic(layer 2) toTCP/IP (layers3 and 4) aswell asapplicationspace, bychaining afirewall setupto a trasparentproxy setup. Acore featurefor Dowse isthat of hidingall thecomplexity ofsuch a setup.
IPFire is aLinux firewalldistributionthat is builtfrom source andcomes with lotsof additionalfeatures. It iseasy to set upand administer.It features afirewall withstatefulinspection, acontentfilteringengine, trafficcontrol (QoS),VPN technology,and a lot oflogging.