FOSS Challenge: Project A Day For 30 days

There are quite a few linux and FOSS related projects I have been meaning to do for some time now. I though it would be cool to share them here as I did them to share my experiences with others here and hopefully some one will join in too! Basically I have ~30 Projects I have been meaning to do, some small and some bigger, all of them use Linux or other FOSS software. I am going to try and do one per day from start to finish.

Day 1 - July 8th 2012: Home-made Router

Today I am going to start a project I have been meaning to do for quite a while. I am going to replace my old(ish) belkin router with a fully functional professional quality router using off the shelf components and FOSS software.


The software: ZeroShell

I will be using ZeroShell for the OS because it's the only [free] distro that supports making WiFi hotspots. Many distros are available if you just want a gateway or firewall but this seems to be the best if you want to truly replace a plastic router. I will also be using OpenDNS latter on.

The Hardware:

Zeroshell only requires these specs:

Any modern hardware will work but the nice thing here is you can even salvage that old PC from you basement if you wanted to. I am going be using a old laptop (HP Pavilion G6) for this, at least until I can buy a dedicated Mini-ATX and build this from the ground up.


Time Required:

If all goes as planned this should only take ~15 not including download time. After ZeroShell is installed I just have to connect to it like any router (192.168.0.1) and configure my settings.

Pics:

Will post through out the day!

 

Cool project!

Have you looked at the Free Software Foundation at all? They have a list of hardware that's fully FOSS, using no proprietary sofware. May be worth looking at if that's your cup of tea.

 

That project does look interesting, thinking I may check it out as well...

 

looks like it doesn't support 802.11n

 

Thanks! I will take a look at that site!

Slight update I just ran into hardware issues (go figure) so I am switching this up until my new hardware comes in. I am now working on a project of mine I have been wanting to do for some time. I will post an update in a few min here