101
Do I really need a firewall for my server? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
59 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I've been running my server without a firewall for quite some time now, I have a piped instance and snikket running on it. I've been meaning to get UFW on it but I've been too lazy to do so. Is it a necessary thing that I need to have or it's a huge security vulnerability? I can only SSH my server from only my local network and must use a VPN if I wanna SSH in outside so I'd say my server's pretty secure but not the furthest I could take it. Opinions please?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I use OpenWRT on my network and each server I have is on its own VLAN. So in my case, my router is the firewall to my servers. But I do have on my todo list to get the local firewalls working as well. As others have said, security is about layers. You want an attacker to have to jump multiple hurdles.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Why did you put each server in its own vlan? You now have a bunch of separate broadcast domains that need a router to move traffic between them. Switching is much faster since it is done in hardware most of the time.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Mainly for security reasons. Both servers have some limited exposure to the internet. Are you saying doing it that way has performance implications? I haven't noticed any problems its all fast just like before when everything was on the same LAN

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It will impact server to server performance significantly.

    If the servers are independent that's fine but don't do a file share or some other performance critical component across vlans.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Interesting, I haven't noticed anything, in fact since I switched everything has felt faster. And I'm constantly sending large files to devices on other VLANs.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    It will be slower with more latency and CPU usage.

    I would highly recommend you read up on networking and the OSI model. Switching is extremely fast because it is done in hardware. Routing is slow because it goes though the CPU.

    If all else fails you could create a dedicated vlan for storage access.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent