Re: At Last

[droege@snapmail.us]

Thanks to all for your advice on the network.  I have picked one of you as
the "victim" and have moved the correspondence off line for security. 
Feel free to continue to offer advice.  I will put up progress reports as
we configure the system.

Tom Droege


> On Fri, 4 Mar 2005, Chris Albertson wrote:
>>I would recommend using a low powered Linux system for
>>the above router.  It would have four Ethernet cards installed
>>and run "shorewall" http://www.shorewall.net/
>
>
> Tom,
>
> Another possibility is Smoothwall Express (http://www.smoothwall.org);
> which can turn an old Pentium or 586/686 or newer PC into an effective
> router + internet gateway + DHCP server + VPN tunnel manager + proxy
> server + firewall (including portforwarding and DMZ's). Includes a
> builtin SSH and web interface for remote administration....and the web
> admin is browser neutral. You also get a good intrusion detection
> system, a proxy server, and various logging capabilities.
>
> The included Virtual Private Networking package is basic, but there
> are user-contributed updates ("OpenSWAN" + "vpnpack") which greatly
> improve the VPN functionality. Highly recommended if you're wanting to
> do VPN between your network and somewhere else on the internet.
>
> Smoothwall Ex supports numerous USB broadband modems, ISDN modems, and
> standard Ethernet xDSL modems out of the box. On either static or
> dynamic public IP addresses (and it does automated notification of a
> new dynamic IP to dyndns.org and such). I've even got Smoothwall
> working successfully with the Telstra NT1 Plus2 ISDN device -- which
> is a Windows-specific gadget unlike anything else in the known
> universe.
>
> The manuals (downloadable PDFs) are very good. And their online forum
> contains a lot of useful tips and advice too. One suggestion I would
> endorse is to use a box with at least 48MB RAM. Preferably 64MB or
> more. Smoothwall will indeed run with 32MB but its performance will
> suffer significantly.
>
> But well worth a look if you need more capabilities than the typical
> "broadband modem & gateway". Your existing broadband gadget can be
> setup as either a dumb modem (Bridge Mode), or you configure it to
> forward everything to the Smoothwall box.
>
>
> My $0.02 worth :-)
>
>
>
> cheers,
>
> Fraser Farrell
>
>
>