Is Snort is a little man from mars?

[Maxepr]

I am not a novice to computers. I have fixed my share of Windows systems over the years. I am new to Linux and I love it! I am learning. When I first heard of Snort, I was interested. After reading about it on line in the forums and their website for a week, I still have NO idea what the hell it does!! I have studied it endlessly on the forums and I have concluded that SNORT is the most OVER-PLUMBED POS software that I have ever seen!! I would rather have the problems that it is suppose to prevent (WHATEVER THE H**L THEY ARE), than use it! Each time I read about how "easy" it is, someone lists three pages of C**P that has to be typed into the terminal. It is MUCH easier to reload the entire operating system and replace ALL my files than to figure SNORT out...!

[bodhi.zazen]

While it sounds like you know a little something about Windows, it also sounds like you have a lot to learn about Linux.

keep in mind also this is a volunteer forums and your posting style may not be the best.

I suggest you start with some of the basics:

http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/linuxcommand.org/

Snort is nothing more then a packet sniffer and filter for suspicious packets. It is not "basic". You say you understand computers, but you do not seem to understand basic IP protocols / packets / packet sniffers, so best to check you ego at the door.

If you are interested check out :

Ubuntu Security - Ubuntu Forums

And for snort :

[all variants] Intrusion Detection - Ubuntu Forums

Other then that, do you have a specific question about a specific step we can help you with ?

[scorp123]

After reading about it on line in the forums and their website for a week, I still have NO idea what the hell it does!!

I don't mean to sound rude ... but doesn't that worry you?

I would rather have the problems that it is suppose to prevent (WHATEVER THE H**L THEY ARE), than use it!

That's maybe the reason why you're not working as firewall administrator in a bigger company somewhere somehow. If you were you wouldn't say such silly things such as "I'd rather have the problems ....". Something like that is easy to say for someone who has only one computer to care about. If you have to care about 4000 or so ... nope. The last thing you want is any weird problem spreading across the network. You absolutely want snort and its cousins.

Each time I read about how "easy" it is, someone lists three pages of C**P that has to be typed into the terminal.

Can it get easier than copy & paste?

It is MUCH easier to reload the entire operating system and replace ALL my files than to figure SNORT out...!

See above. As soon as you have responsibility for a few dozen or even 100's of computers you will easily realise how flawed your statement above is.