Hi Don, Thanks for the advice. John
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As I am recently new to Linux I have managed to get two Pc's running SuSE V8 KDE 3, & Samba 2.2.3a connected to my small network.
The internet gateway has always been via my PC running NT4 (sp6a) which has two network cards, one connected to the internal network, the other to an ADSL modem.
SuSE seems to do a good job of connecting to the net via the NT box, but I also run Sygate Home Network on that NT box to enable other windows PC's/notebook to share the internet connection.
Unfortunately, I need to retain the NT4 box for some time yet as I run a couple of applications which as yet I have not got running under wine.
However, I can move my gateway away from the NT box. I would love to be able to maintain my ADSL connection live for days on end without having a BSOD or reboot to update something and the consequent disconnection that goes on and on with windoze.
I have available a couple of older PC's, and bits that I can us to build a gatway PC.
Now I have read of Smoothwall, and IPCop, and I gather there are other similar solutions. Although I think that I would like to use SuSE if that was a not too difficult approach, apart from V8 I also have 6.3, 6.4 & 7.3 if they are of any use.
I would appreciate some advice from the experienced readers here as to the best way to go.
As I see it I want to have a linux PC that will serve as the gateway to the net through the present ADSL modem, and provide protection to the internal small network.
After installation I would like to be able to remove any monitor and even keyboard/mouse etc, with access from any other PC on the network.
I have a couple of smaller HDD's 450Mb + which I could use, or alternatively a CD-ROM or FDD.
My preference would be for a solution that a newbie can reasonably setup and manage, and which would not require a lot of maintenance.
Thanks for any advice or reading refences. John
I've been using the Smoothwall firewall for over a year now and it is a rock stable product that is super easy to setup. The 0.9.9 version runs on the 2.2.x kernel, so you have to make sure your ethernet cards are supported, but that's about it. The 2.0 release with the 2.4.x kernel is still in beta for the free version.
Patches are regularly released for Smoothwall, and installing them is a snap. Other than the initial setup all management is done through the web interface.
The install is quite small, less than 128MB and I've even considered installing it to a flash disk with one of the new VIA ITX boards for a truely silent and small solution.
Don
---- John Blue, PO Box 542 Mawson ACT 2607 email: jblue@bestpond.com
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