Smoothwall Express

The Free Open Source Firewall Solution

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Smoothwall Open Source

The Smoothwall Open Source Project was set up in 2000 to develop and maintain Smoothwall Express - a Free firewall that includes its own security-hardened GNU/Linux operating system and an easy-to-use web interface.

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We have a large community of over 18,000 members including a dedicated core team of moderators and admins which can help with any questions or comments your have.

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Protect your Network with an Open-Source Firewall

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Michael Scalisi

IT Manager

Releases

3 March 2025

Smoothwall Express SP6/Update 12 Released

The Smoothwall Express development team annouce the release of SP6/Update 12. We updated a number of packages (iptables v1.8.7, linux v4.4.302, snort v2.9.20, among others). We made a few improvements to the UI, including fixing a number of the Javascript data validators that had mind-bendingly illogical logic.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all 32- and 64-bit x86 hardware older than one or two years. The usual caveat still applies: leading edge hardware may be too new to be supported.

Please see the SP6/Update12 release announcement for more information and download links.

1 May 2015

Smoothwall Express v3.0 Update 10 Released and End-of-Life Announcement

In 2015, the final update to SmoothWall Express v3.0 was released. This update primarily addressed several CVEs that were reported.

Please note that SmoothWall Express v3.0 reached end-of-life at this time.

Please see the SmoothWall Express v3.0 Update 10 and the SmoothWall Express v3.0 end-of-life announcements for more information and download links.

2014-2020

Smoothwall Express v3.1 Updates 1-11 Released

Over these next 6 year, the Smoothwall Express development team release 11 updates (and 5 installable 'service pack' ISOs) containing many bug fixes and improvements and some new features. There have been reports of Smoothwall Express v3.1 running for years without any oopses.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all 32- and 64-bit x86 hardware older than one or two years. The usual caveat still applies: leading edge hardware may be too new to be supported.

Please see Announcements forum for more information and download links.

21 October 2014

Smoothwall Express 3.1 Finally Released

The Smoothwall Community are pleased to announce the release of the long awaited Smoothwall Express 3.1 Firewall.

After 1½ years of development, the Smoothwall Express development team have released the Smoothwall Express 3.1 Firewall system.

Smoothwall Express 3.1 is largely a refresh of version 3.0. Numerous latentand hard-to-reproduce bugs in 3.0 were eliminated during development. Updated runtime software includes linux 3.4.103, gcc 4.7.3, glibc 2.18, binutils 2.22, iptables 1.4.14 and xtables-addons 1.45, OpenSWAN 2.6.41, Snort 2.9.6.2, ClamAV 0.98.4, and Squid 3.3.12. New software available for further development include apcupsd, lm_sensors, smartmontools, iperf, ntop and suricata. Qemu and samba are available to spur development of virtual machines on top of the firewall. The user interface has been freshened with the new Smoothwall logo and a number of presentation improvements. There are two new features: Plug-n-Play Backup, and automatic translations for non-English-speaking users. The Smoothinfo, URL Filter and DHCP Lease Table mods have been fully integrated into the system. Installation on the KVM, VirtualBox, VMware, Hyper-V and Xen hypervisors and virtual environments is supported, as are the standard virtio drivers.

There is a new advanced installer that helps the admin prepare a bootable flash and install from it; it also allows the admin to install from a serial port console with network appliances that do not have VESA consoles. On the system level, symmetric multi-processing (SMP) is now standard, udev handles all devices, and Grub Legacy is the bootloader for all media. The Linux firmware collection is included to make even more hardware compatible with Smoothwall Express. On the development side, there's gcc 4.7.3, glibc2.18 and a vastly reworked build system--now with re-entrance and parallel make capability; the build system creates true i586 32-bit code and standard 64-bit code.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all 32- and 64-bit x86 hardware older than one or two years. The usual caveat still applies: leading edge hardware may be too new to be supported.

Please see Release Announcement for more information and download links.

15 April 2014

Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate 5 available for testing

The Smoothwall Express Community released the Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate #5 Installation CD (iso image) for widespread testing and bug squashing.

This new CD contains Smoothwall Express 3.1, a refresh of version 3.0. Numerous latent and hard-to-reproduce bugs in 3.0 were eliminated during development. Updated runtime software includes linux 3.4, gcc 4.7.3, glibc 2.18, binutils 2.22, iptables 1.4.14 and xtables-addons 1.45, openswan 2.6.41, snort 2.9.6.0 and squid 3.3.12. The user interface has been freshened with the new Smoothwall logo and a number of presentation improvements. There are two new features: Plug-n-Play Backup, and automatic translations for non-English-speaking users. Installation on the KVM, VirtualBox, vmWare and Xen hypervisers and virtual environments is supported. The Smoothinfo, URL Filter and DHCP Lease Table mods have been fully integrated.

There is a new advanced installer that facilitates preparing a bootable flash and installing from it as well as using a serial console with network appliances that do not have VESA consoles. On the system level, symmetric multi-processing (SMP) is now standard, udev handles all devices, and grub legacy is used for all bootstrapping. On the development side, there's gcc 4.7.3 and a vastly reworked build system--now with re-entrance and parallel make capability.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all x86 and x86_64 hardware with the usual caveat that leading edge hardware may be too new. Give it a whirl and help us make it the best yet.

Please see the Release Announcement for more information and download links.

23 July 2013

Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate 3 available for testing

Today we have released the Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate #3 Installation CD (iso image) for widespread testing and bug squashing.

This new CD contains Smoothwall Express 3.1, a refresh of version 3.0. Numerous latent and hard-to-reproduce bugs in 3.0 were eliminated during development. Updated runtime software includes linux 3.4, glibc 2.14.1, binutils 2.22, iptables 1.4.14 and xtables-addons 1.45, openswan 2.6.38, snort 2.9.4.6 and squid 3.1.23. The user interface has been freshened with the new Smoothwall logo and a number of presentation improvements. There are two new features: Plug-n-Play Backup, and automatic translations for non-English-speaking users.

There is a new advanced installer that facilitates preparing a bootable flash and installing from it as well as using a serial console with network appliances that do not have VESA consoles. On the system level, symmetric multi-processing (SMP) is now standard, udev handles all devices, and grub legacy is used for all bootstrapping. On the development side, there's gcc 4.7.2 and a vastly reworked build system--now with re-entrance and parallel make capability.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all x86 and x86_64 hardware with the usual caveat that leading edge hardware may be too new. Give it a whirl and help us make it the best yet.

Please see the Release Announcement for more information and download links.

23 July 2013

Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate 2 available for testing

Today we have released the Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate #2 Installation CD (iso image) for widespread testing and bug squashing.

Around 10 issues, found in RC1 are fixed in this latest release.

This new CD contains Smoothwall Express 3.1, a refresh of version 3.0. Numerous latent and hard-to-reproduce bugs in 3.0 were eliminated during development. Updated runtime software includes linux 3.4, glibc 2.14.1, binutils 2.22, iptables 1.4.14 and xtables-addons 1.45, openswan 2.6.38, snort 2.9.4.6 and squid 3.1.23. The user interface has been freshened with the new Smoothwall logo and a number of presentation improvements. There are two new features: Plug-n-Play Backup, and automatic translations for non-English-speaking users.

There is a new advanced installer that facilitates preparing a bootable flash and installing from it as well as using a serial console with network appliances that do not have VESA consoles. On the system level, symmetric multi-processing (SMP) is now standard, udev handles all devices, and grub legacy is used for all bootstrapping. On the development side, there's gcc 4.7.2 and a vastly reworked build system--now with re-entrance and parallel make capability.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all x86 and x86_64 hardware with the usual caveat that leading edge hardware may be too new. Give it a whirl and help us make it the best yet.

Please see the Release Announcement for more information and download links.

18 June 2013

Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate 1 available for testing

Today we have released the Smoothwall Express 3.1 Release Candidate #1 Installation CD (iso image) for widespread testing and bug squashing.

This new CD contains Smoothwall Express 3.1, a refresh of version 3.0. Numerous latent and hard-to-reproduce bugs in 3.0 were eliminated during development. Updated runtime software includes linux 3.4, glibc 2.14.1, binutils 2.22, iptables 1.4.14 and xtables-addons 1.45, openswan 2.6.38, snort 2.9.4.6 and squid 3.1.23. The user interface has been freshened with the new Smoothwall logo and a number of presentation improvements. There are two new features: Plug-n-Play Backup, and automatic translations for non-English-speaking users.

There is a new advanced installer that facilitates preparing a bootable flash and installing from it as well as using a serial console with network appliances that do not have VESA consoles. On the system level, symmetric multi-processing (SMP) is now standard, udev handles all devices, and grub legacy is used for all bootstrapping. On the development side, there's gcc 4.7.2 and a vastly reworked build system--now with re-entrance and parallel make capability.

You should be able to install Smoothwall Express 3.1 on nearly all x86 and x86_64 hardware with the usual caveat that leading edge hardware may be too new. Give it a whirl and help us make it the best yet.

Please see the Release Announcement for more information and download links.

18 May 2012

Smoothwall Express 3.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Today we have released the Smoothwall Express 3.0 SP3 Installation CD (iso image)

This new CD contains Smoothwall Express 3.0 with updates 1 – 8 pre-installed meaning that new installations may take advantage of the improved driver support, the Ext4 filesystem, larger drive support and RAID array support introduced in Smoothwall Express 3.0 Update 8.

If you have previously had difficulty installing Smoothwall Express 3.0, particularly on newer hardware then please try Smoothwall Express 3.0 SP3.

User Feedback

Smoothwall has found a home in companies worldwide. Here are some quotes from users who have contacted us – we literally have over four thousand emails from happy users all over the world.

"Our DSL line went down recently due to the attack on NYC. I needed to quickly set up a shared dialup and didn’t want to mess with our current firewall. Smoothwall installed in minutes and my users were able to check their e-mail within half an hour."

"The cost of a Cisco router was seriously prohibitive for my company, but thanks to Smoothwall I have all the functionality at an unbeatable price."

"I use my Smoothwall in a local high school where I am network administrator. It is a small private school with very little extra money in the budget for technology items.
Your smoothwall is a perfect solution for us and has operated to perfection thus far."

Your smoothwall is a perfect solution for us and has operated to perfection thus far."

"Beautiful interface, and GREAT install! I just installed Smoothwall on a HP Pavilion 6530, with 3 Netgear NICs. I am currently using a Watchguard Firebox, and am more impressed with your product than theirs!!"

"I was in the process of ordering a PIX firewall when I came across smoothie. I waited two days for 0.9.9 beta to be released. Downloaded, installed it and put into use today for a daily newspaper in Ohio, US"

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