Okay, so maybe the firewall appliance with the built-in Snort isn't what you need right now. Maybe what you need instead is a full-blown NIDS. But, you're a busy person who needs something quick and easy, and your boss has put you on a rather strict budget. So, what do you do?
Security Onion is a free-of-charge specialty Linux distro that's built on top of the Xubuntu Long-term Support (LTS) distro. It includes a full implementation of Snort, complete with just about every graphical goody you can imagine to help you visualize what's happening on your network. If you can install a Linux distro and do some point-and-click configuration after the installation, then you can install Security Onion.
Note that the Xubuntu LTS ...
