Re: Internet Gateway help

David Cooper wrote:
>
> As my first step to moving to linux I need to create a gateway for my
> network.  Right now my server runs XP and is the gateway both I would
> like to change this to a more secure gateway.  So here is what I want
> to do.  I came upon an old computer that should work just fine.  The
> specs are:
> P90
> 64mb ram
> 4mb video
> 1 gb harddrive
> Idealy I want this computer to run with only the floppy and no hard
> drive (would this be reliable?).  But if I have to put a hard drive in
> it this is no problem.  This computer will be the only thing between
> my cable modem and the rest of the network.  My main questions are:
> What distribution would work best?
> Would the floppy be accessed a lot or is all the files stored in RAM?
> Is this even feasible?
> 2 network cards or one?
> Would this work with all other computers running Win XP?
>

I have a firewall/router made from a 486 66Mhz with 16 Meg RAM, a floppy
drive, 2 NICs, and no HD. The software is called Frazierwall.
http://frazierwall.com It was developed here in Wichita. eth0 connects
to the cable modem and eth1 has an 8 port hub on it. My computers sit
behind this machine in a secure & private LAN. This setup allows me to
play with 3 windows machines, 2 Linux machines, and my 2 dual boot
laptops.

Right now the up-time on the firewall is 35 days and counting. The last
reboot was due to a power failure that lasted longer than the UPS could
handle. With this setup any computer set to use dhcp or set with a
permanent IP address in the right range will have access to the
internet. The only time the floppy is accessed is at boot. after that
everything happens in RAM.

Stephen S.
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