| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 32215 | 2003-04-12 08:32:00 | Using an old PC as a firewall | Jester (13) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 135250 | 2003-04-12 08:32:00 | Hi I am toying with the idea of using an old p133 PC' as a firewall/server. Using Linux maybe? Has anyone got any links, tips, step by step instructions etc? J. :D |
Jester (13) | ||
| 135251 | 2003-04-12 09:05:00 | There is SmoothWall (www.quarkav.com) and IPCop (ipcop.org). | Susan B (19) | ||
| 135252 | 2003-04-12 09:09:00 | Have a look at IPcop (http://www.ipcop.org). It's a rather small distribution that will act as a firewall. | segfault (655) | ||
| 135253 | 2003-04-12 09:40:00 | Thanks Susan and segfault.. I am not quite at the stage of installing programs onto it yet, really wanting to understand how it is set up. Looking around I think that you can run a Linux firewall/server/thingie, using a 486/early pentium booting off a floppy disk (ie no hard drive) and two NIC's installed??? Does the modem connect to the firewall PC, if so, how do you format it to connect without an O/S? It's early days yet but I can't find anything specific about how to actually set things up. Thanks J :D |
Jester (13) | ||
| 135254 | 2003-04-12 09:54:00 | Jester, I ran a thread ( . pcworld . co . nz/thread . jsp?forum=1&thread=31550&message=133242" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz) not long ago about SmoothWall which you may be interested in . I also downloaded and read the FAQ, Installation, Configuration and Network Guide . pdf files from the SmoothWall site which gave excellent information . They would be worth your while getting just to learn more about it . Yes, the modem connects to the firewall PC . The SmoothWall IS the O/S and can be the only thing installed on the computer, ie you cannot run other programs and use it as a PC . It will be dedicated to being a firewall . I have not installed SmoothWall myself yet as I am not sure about some of my hardware at this stage . |
Susan B (19) | ||
| 135255 | 2003-04-12 10:04:00 | Susan, THANKS :D I was baffled by the info on the smoothwall site when I first went there - I'll have a good look around now :). Thanks for the link to the earlier thread too! Cheers |
Jester (13) | ||
| 135256 | 2003-04-12 10:16:00 | I haven't personally tried, but you can install IPCOP easily. You download a 20mb (or so - don't quite remember), which is a CD Image file, and you burn it to a CD. You boot it on the computer, with no OS installed, and follow the instructions to install it. In theory, it sounds quite easy, but I haven't actually tried. I think it can be configured via a web-based interface. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 135257 | 2003-04-12 10:20:00 | Wait wait wait!!! I think I gave you the wrong link to the SmoothWall site, that other one was not their official site (I bookmarked those pages ages ago so my memory is getting a bit dim :D ) Try the www.smoothwall.org site and go to the Docs page from the link up the top. That is where the doc files are. Just as well you have Jetstream now with the runaround I am giving you. :D |
Susan B (19) | ||
| 135258 | 2003-04-12 10:22:00 | ahhhh Susan you tease . . . here I am running here and there lol I am used to that though, the wife and kids keep me running all day! Thanks for the new link, and yesssss Jetstream is luvverlyy J :D |
Jester (13) | ||
| 135259 | 2003-04-12 10:48:00 | Howdy Jester, As well as Smoothwall (www.smoothwall.org) and IPCop (http:) as Susan and Segfault mentioned there is also the Linux Router Project (http://www.linuxrouter.org) that you asked about. This page leads you to additional links of some of the Routers that have been created. The difference between a Smoothwall/IPCop setup and LRP is the need for a dedicated hard drive. All of them use linux as their OS, but LRP creates a RAM disk where it resides. Creating an LRP disk can require a bit of fiddling, although there are some ready created floppy disk images that will setup a very simple Firewall/Router configuration. Both IPCop and Smoothwall have ISO disk images that you download and then burn to a CD as a bootable image Personally I haven't installed on a minimal system and am looking forward to hearing how Susan goes with her 486. I have Smoothwall GPL 1.0 setup on a P1/100Mhz, 1.2Gb hard drive with 96Mb of RAM and am playing with Smoothwall GPL 2.0 on a 133Mhz system. I've also just organised an ISO of IPCop which I will install on another machine soon. Thought I would do a comparison of the two distros. You could also check out EigerStein (home.attbi.com) which gives quite a comprehensive tutorial or "How To" for a Router on a Floppy. The main question I would ask "is what specs are you looking at?" HTH |
Gorela (901) | ||
| 1 2 3 | |||||