Suggestion: Router Forum

Pilli - cool then.. I've got the ethernet card that's built in to the mobo and an extra in my mean machine and just the one int heold puter.. i assume the nice one makes the best gateway; win98 on old one and win2k on here- I have the cable and firewalls.. Guess I can just do it!
hmph!
Running Sygate on here and ZoneAlarm on the oldie

 

Believe it or not, someone gave me an old (really old) Commordore 64 computer (still in the box).

Haven't I read somewhere that even that could be used as a "hardware firewall" since it has NAT?

If so, how would one go about it? Pete

 

Spy 1

see if this will work:
http://www.netboz.net

 

Hmm there was another one somebody posted on this board once but I couldn't tell ya where; I've long forgotten!

 

Hi Detox,

I think you mean this one: http://www.freebsd.org/

Regards,

Pieter

 

Hm, I do believe you are right! There you have it Spy1

 

Another choice is the Lichtenstein LEAF firewall, (which you guys may be referring to).

You need a min 486DX w/32mgs RAM (as I recall).

It boots from a floppy/cd, and assigns ip addys automatically!

Google a search on LEAF or linux embedded appliance firewall...

 

Some more floppy based firewalls:

linux based products:
http://www.freesco.org
http://www.coyotelinux.com
http://www.lintegrate.nl (dutch mxstream adsl solution)

And how about this Freebsd based floppy:
http://www.closedbsd.org

Theu all require an old pc (486/p1) and min 16 mb ram. Great stuff

btw: I'm running an e-smith(.org) firewall/internetserver with lots of goodies.

Big advantage of these products over hardware boxes is the configurability and extra functions. Big disadvantage too

(edit: I stated that closedbsd was Openbsd based, but it's freebsd based )

 

meneer,

Do you have any personal experience with that one?
I would like to know if it is easy to reconfigure, if need be.

 

Well it seems theres plenty of discussion matter where routers are concerned, maybe a forum dedicated to them is needed after all!

 

Yes, very positive.

[landutch]
Werkt prima, installeert lekker snel, vergt maar één aanpassing in een configuratiebestandje op de flop, namelijk gebruikersnaam en wachtwoord. Het werkte voor mij iets soepeler dan Freesco.

Ik ben overgestapt op e-smith om extra functionaliteit te krijgen (mijn eigen server en zo, extra logginganalyse mogelijkheden), dat vergde wel adsl4linux installatie, maar dat is ook niet echt complex.
Ik heb nu een BBNED verbinding, dat werkt nog makkelijker: in het geheel geen configuratie, alleen macadres validatie bij de provider.
[/landutch]



-edit silly quote tags don't like the [landutch] tags, not xml compliant I suppose

 

I can read Dutch, so no probs here, but others might not be so lucky. We don't want your post removed for offensive language. Thnx for the info.

 

But I think we've got most of the cutest ones in here...

 

Hi Paul,

I completely agree to your statement! Unfortunately people read this thread, but they don't take part in the poll... Like that it's not representative, I know. If I look at the huge number of the members, I begin to wonder, why they don't share their opinion with us.

Regards,

Patrice

 

Perhaps people don't know why to use a router or for that sake a linux based first line of defense

I'll change my signature to indicate that I'm a huge 'router' fan

 

As the price of routers has dropped, I suspect that the main reason many don't use them is ignorance. I'm especially concerned about the folks relying on ICS when a router would be more secure. So I favor starting a forum even though it would build slowly from a small number of participants. Just the stickies would be a public service.

 

Hi LowWaterMark,

good idea you have! So let's start with it:

For example, first of all the sticky posts need to explain shortly what a router is and what's the purpose of it. With a note like that, people know what we are talking about. Imagine, you can explain this very well with a little image attachment which shows the network with a router installed. As we all know, an image replaces 1'000 words...

Then you need some information about how to set a router correctly and where you can test it (for example PC Flank). Just the basic hints about what you should look at (like change admin password, upgrade to the latest firmware, use NAT firewall,...).

And it would be nice if we would give some links to nice logging tools for the routers. When I first came here, this was my main problem. Pilli helped me out. Would be great if everyone could use this information for his own router.

Like that people know what we are talking about, know about the advantages, etc. So they know about the basic stuff. The rest can be individual and don't need to be in a sticky note.

Any other good suggestions?

Best regards,

Patrice

 

LWM - How about "Rules for dummy's" As most routers are configurable We have many newbies visiting this site as well as the more experienced. So Step by step rules settings would certainly ease the pain for many newcomers to routers.

I know that there are dedicated sites but they can be quite technical & to quote Mr Balze "Not Newbie freiendly" This could be as applicable to FreeBSD or to Linksys type routers.

Also those that use P2P configurations for work & play etc. This is an area that is sometimes difficult to find written step by step procedures.

Pilli

 

Hey I wanna know more about this "linux router" thing I just don't get it with Windows...? I just don't know a thing about routers so... But this intrigues me!

 

Hi Detox, Basically you take an old low spec pentium or even a 486 with as little as 16MB of Ram, put two network cards in it - one for you local network and the other as your iinternet gateway. Then load something like FreeBSD. Configure it, make sure it all works, stick out of the way and that's it

I am sure others will add their bit. I use a linksys due to lack of room for another box in my little office.

 

And you can do it even easier:
the iron is ok, but just get yourself a freesco (.org) router on a floppy.
Later on you can experiment with other, more advanced options.

There's really nothing to it by using freesco

 

AHHH OK I forgot (duh) we were talking also about the old PC as a router... so I was trying to figure out how a regular hardware router would be either "windows" or "linux"

But now I got it hehe

 

i would love to see a fourm on the subject of routers i have been running with a 2wire 1100 series and never see any comments pertaining to that modle.just my two cents worth.