On Tue, Feb 20, Darryl Gregorash wrote:

On 2024-02-20 21:55, Michael Fischer wrote:

Hi all,

may be in the situation where I'd want to create a "second nic" via usb->ethernet.

Is this one of those USB WiFi things? If so, just plug it in, and go
into YaST/Network Settings and configure it. Then go into Services
Manager and enable service hostapd to run manually. Hostapd will bring
the subnet up whenever the NIC is detected, and bring it down if the NIC
is unplugged.

Nope. "Ordinary small Dell desktop playing the role of firewall/router", in the
case of "too darn small to take an additional ordinary-size nic card but has
plenty of USB-3", like, one of these: 

https://amazon.com/Dell-OptiPlex-7050-Micro-Refurbished/dp/B0C9SWBX88/

Notion is to put the line out to the world through the onboard nic, and a
USB->ethernet to the switch for the "internal" machines.

Question I have is, why choose OpenSuse, or any general purpose distro, instead of pfSense, or some other "purpose built" FOSS software?