Synaptic Package Manager & Gufw

Downloading

Synaptic Package Manager

through the Ubuntu Software Centre.

"Synaptic is a graphical front-end to apt, the package management system in Ubuntu. It combines the point-and-click simplicity of the graphical user interface with the power of the apt-get command line tool.

You can install, remove, configure, or upgrade software packages, browse, sort and search the list of available software packages, manage repositories, or upgrade the whole system.

You can queue up a number of actions before you execute them. Synaptic will inform you about dependencies (additional packages required by the software package you have chosen) as well as conflicts with other packages that are already installed on your system."

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto?action=show&redirect=Synaptic

Prelude to - Next Step:

Gufw is a firewall powered by UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall).

Installation

In order to install Gufw, you must have the Universe repository enabled. To install, use Synaptic, or run from Terminal: 

sudo apt-get install gufw

As I've been too lazy to fully grasp rules of running terminal commands, I'm downloading the graphics interface firewall thingy - here.

Or, that's the plan at this stage.

But maybe this step is a waste of time, because I can't see myself writing rules for the firewall.  lol

Xubuntu 15.04 & UFW (Firewall)

Was having problems with Zorin 9.

Maybe my not knowing what I'm doing was the problem.

Display started messing up.  Lived around that.

Switching from window to window, display would be sort of jig-saw scrambled and 'bleeding through' before adjusting if you flicked screens enough or (oddly) pressed the print screen button to 'break' whatever the problem was.

The next problem:  YouTube videos and audio stopped playing.

Rather than reinstall the same OS, I chose to make a switch.

Picked Xubuntu 15.04 (April 2015 release) - here.

Loads of thought didn't go into the selection:  it was just the first I'd downloaded and burnt onto disc.

Managed to mess this up almost right away by mindlessly running a line command re the graphics driver (which I didn't need to do) ... and got a scary !warning! which freaked me.

Thought I'd try some other OS to see if I like it ... went for Linux Mint.  But that one kept dying on me before I could adjust the graphics driver.  

Reloaded Xubuntu 15.04.

It feels OK.  Don't mind how it looks.  Think I can get to like it.

Been messing around on it for maybe a couple of days or something like that, before remembering to check that the firewall's turned on.

For status check:

sudo ufw status verbose

WTF!  Firewall inactive.  Geez, you'd think developers would automate this.  But they don't.

Ran the activation command:

sudo ufw enable

Subsequent check shows:

tokyo@tokyo:~$ sudo ufw status verbose
[sudo] password for tokyo:
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip
tokyo@tokyo:~$

No idea what it means, but UFW's working.  

UFW is 'Uncomplicated Firewall' - here.

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Download Xubuntu 15.04
http://xubuntu.org/