Hi Guys 

This isn't a hacking query of such although it is understanding security in order to defend against hackers.

So I've gained real world exposure monitoring IPS systems although I've never had the chance to implement one and I am a firm believer of understanding the guts of a system.

So my question to you is does anyone know of any good free IPS software which can be configured and tweaked and whatnot which are as robust as one used within an enterprise and runs on windows 7?

I am currently getting my head around Snort although a network manager told me its legacy.  Its seems like the only option in my eyes although I am still searching.

Any thoughts are welcome as ever! 

Hi, I am a newbe too, but I do not think Snort is legacy, I would keep the effort on that direction.

My argument against snort is that it just detects.  I'm sure its fit for purpose although i am looking for IPS implementation exposure.  Ideally.

cd1zz - Thanks will look into it now.

Check out Doug Burk's Security Onion.  It includes a couple of engines and a lot of GUIs.

And, btw, snort should not be considered legacy or obsolete yet...it does what it does very well.

hxxp://securityonion.blogspot.com/

For some smaller shops (aka - schools and other,) I've also been glancing over Untangle.

http://www.untangle.com/

Does use snort underneath, and has some other neat little utils and add-on's, both free and for $, for lesser-experienced setups.

Suricata is NOT built on top of Snort. Suricata engine is completely written from 0, it supports the rules language from Snort, but it does not use any code from Snort.

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