How Secure these open source router really is?

[mack_guy911]

hello all

A friend of mine ask me for a suggestion for router between 100-200$ he should bye i suggested him to build own router at same cost by buying old P4 2.4 ghz 1 GB ram and 40 gb hardisk..........and install any free open source router firewall like endian smoothwall pfsense .....Astaro Security Gateway...etc........now he also told me that he some times do online shopping and netbanking and sharetrading......now question he ask me i also wonder that how secure there open source routers really is....

i know many company make their router on open source what i mean here is the free ones like Community additions like endian, ipcop, smoothwall, pfsense............etc

[noone_particular]

I use Smoothwall Express, which is an Open Source firewall, and I trust it. Making the source code available doesn't make an application or firewall more vulnerable, just as keeping the source code private doesn't make software more secure. One doesn't have to look any further than Windows and Internet Explorer for proof of this. If anything, making the source code available gives others the opportunity to spot flaws in the code and strengthen it. I use Open Source software and freeware almost exclusively, have for years. I've found Open Source software (which includes hardware firewalls) to be high quality and well written when compared to the commercial equivalents. Open Source software is written by users for users. People work on it, test it, and improve it because they want to. With commercial software, the coder is paid to work on it. They make it the way the company tells them to, not the way the users want it. IMO, that is the big difference between Open Source and commercial software, the motivation and attitude behind it. With Open Source, you don't have to worry about adware/spyware bundled in, or the app calling home.

[andyman35]

Originally Posted by noone_particular

I use Smoothwall Express, which is an Open Source firewall, and I trust it. Making the source code available doesn't make an application or firewall more vulnerable, just as keeping the source code private doesn't make software more secure. One doesn't have to look any further than Windows and Internet Explorer for proof of this. If anything, making the source code available gives others the opportunity to spot flaws in the code and strengthen it. I use Open Source software and freeware almost exclusively, have for years. I've found Open Source software (which includes hardware firewalls) to be high quality and well written when compared to the commercial equivalents. Open Source software is written by users for users. People work on it, test it, and improve it because they want to. With commercial software, the coder is paid to work on it. They make it the way the company tells them to, not the way the users want it. IMO, that is the big difference between Open Source and commercial software, the motivation and attitude behind it. With Open Source, you don't have to worry about adware/spyware bundled in, or the app calling home.

That's right,some may say the opposite is the case since potential flaws are visible to everyone.