ClearOS (also known as the ClearOS System, formerly ClarkConnect) is a

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading on ...

ClearFoundation ClearFoundation is a Non-profit Incorporated Society that develops and manages the source code and repository of its flagship operating system namely ClearOS. The organization is headquartered in New Zealand History The ClearFoundation is a Ne ...

, with network gateway, file, print, mail, and messaging services.

History

ClearOS is based on CentOS and

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Commercial software, commercial Open-source software, open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commerce, commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-6 ...

, designed for use in

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Ban ...

as a network gateway and network server with a web-based administration interface. It is positioned as an alternative to Windows Small Business Server. ClearOS is the successor to ClarkConnect. The software is built by

, and support services can be purchased from

ClearCenter ClearCenter is headquartered in New Zealand, and has its primary product offices in Orem, Utah, along with marketing, support, research and development facilities around the world, ranging from Canada, Taiwan, China, Netherlands, UK and India. ...

. ClearOS 5.1 removes previous limitations to mail, DMZ, and MultiWAN functions. As of the ClearOS 6.1 release, the distribution is a full-featured operating system for gateway, network and servers built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. ClearOS aims to replace, as a small business server,

Windows SBS Windows Server Essentials (formerly Small Business Server or SBS) is an integrated server suite from Microsoft for businesses with no more than 25 users or 50 devices. It includes Windows Server, Exchange Server, Windows SharePoint Services, a ...

Features

Features include: * Stateful firewall ( iptables), networking and security * Intrusion detection and prevention system ( SNORT) * Virtual private networking (

IPsec In computing, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a secure network protocol suite that authenticates and encrypts packets of data to provide secure encrypted communication between two computers over an Internet Protocol network. It is used in ...

PPTP The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is an obsolete method for implementing virtual private networks. PPTP has many well known security issues. PPTP uses a TCP control channel and a Generic Routing Encapsulation tunnel to encapsulate P ...

OpenVPN OpenVPN is a virtual private network (VPN) system that implements techniques to create secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It implements both client-server architect ...

) * Web proxy, with content filtering and antivirus (

Squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting ...

, DansGuardian) * E-mail services (Webmail, Postfix,

SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typic ...

POP3 In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. POP version 3 (POP3) is the version in common use, and along with IMAP the most comm ...

/s,

IMAP In computing, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by . IMAP was designed with the goal of pe ...

/s) * Groupware ( Kolab) * Database and web server (easy to deploy LAMP stack) * File and print services (

Samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

and CUPS) * Flexshares (unified multi-protocol storage which currently employs SMB,

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...

/S, FTP/S, and

) * MultiWAN (Internet

fault tolerant design Fault tolerance is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of one or more faults within some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the ...

) * Built-in reports for system statistics and services ( MRTG and others)

Awards and recognition

*August 2009: CompTIA Breakaway — ClearCenter's ClearOS wins 'Best New Product' at CompTIA Breakaway. *August 2010: CompTIA Breakaway — ClearCenter's ClearOS repeats win for 'Best New Product' at CompTIA Breakaway. *July 2012: Softpedia — An Open Source, free and powerful network and gateway Linux server operating system *February 2014: IDG Security Firewall Distributions Review *June 2015: Small Business Computing — The 5 Best Linux Servers for Small Business *September 2015: LinuxVoice Service Distro — Group Test (see pages 58-63)

References

External links

* *
Clark Connect
at

DistroWatch DistroWatch is a website which provides news, distribution pages hit rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open source Unix-like operating systems. It now contains information on ...

clarkconnect.com

clarkconnect.org
''recycle a tired old computer into an Internet gateway''
PointClark Networks

ClarkConnect becomes ClearOS
!-
Announcement of ClearCenter and ClearFoundation by Point Clark Networks
-->
ClearFoundation

ClearCenter
Enterprise Linux distributions Firewall software Free routing software Gateway/routing/firewall distribution Linux distributions {{Linux-distro-stub

History

Features

Awards and recognition

See also

References

External links