Burned by a firewall

Saved by the bell. Or maybe that should be: failed by the bell. I had intended to write about the new firewall I started working on two weeks ago (see Resources for a link), but the deadline is here and I am still defenseless. There has to be an easier way than the paths I've been down. I've done tons of things wrong so far, but the real problem is that I don't seem to be able to figure out what I'm doing wrong now, and that keeps me from getting the firewall to work.

The goal seemed simple enough: install a firewall between my router and my LAN while preserving the ability to access my Web and mail servers, which would sit on the LAN protected by the firewall. I built a box. I stuck in two NICs. I grabbed the copy of Stormix Firewall that had been gathering dust, while uninvited guests began housekeeping on my server (see Resources for a link). Then I began a long journey, most often of the pattern "one step forward, two steps back." I have made some progress, but not enough to get me where I need to go. I sit here, my dweebs, munching on a slice of humble pie. Help me if you can.

Here is the topography:

                                     ISP

                                      |

                                    Router
                                 xxx.xxx.xxx.3

                                      |

                                     etho
                                 xxx.xxx.xxx.4
                                   Firewall
                                     eth1
                                 xxx.xxx.xxx.7

                                      |

                                     Hub
                        ---------------------------------
               |                      |                       |

            xxx.xxx.xxx.5        xxx.xxx.xxx.6        xxx.xxx.xxx.?
                  Server          Workstation          Workstation

Installation of Storm Linux was problem-free except for one difficulty that I ran into last year: one of my NICs required an RTL8139 driver. Storm Linux, like Debian Potato when it first came out, recognized the card but didn't include the driver. Hey, no problem. I had been down this path before, so I simply downloaded newer drivers from the Stormix site and got the one I needed.

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