Linux box for NAT firewalling

[nigg0r]

Ive heard many people recomend using an old P166 to run a linux box as a firewall for a home lan. Anyone have any good resources for info on specifically what methods are best for this type of setup? Any feedback much appreciated.

[lvslr]

www.gnatbox.com (http://www.gnatbox.com)


You download the software, and then you run through the setup wizard to create a bootable floppy.

Then you use the floppy to boot up the box you want to use for your firewall/NAT.

Any questions post here or e-mail me.

[nigg0r]

hey thanks a lot man =)

[kaveman]

You might also want to check out edge.fireplug.net. Runs on a machine as "wimpy" as a 486-DX266 and 16M RAM. Floopy boot or HDD boot. Been runnin' mine for about 6 months. Easy to install/config, very very fast since it all runs from a RAM disk.

Another one I looked at was from www.mikrotik.com (http://www.mikrotik.com) (Might have been microtik.com, don't recall off hand) that looked promising. I didn't use it 'cuz there was no support for the venerable 3Com 3C509B NICs. (As I understand it, there is now support for these NICs)

Good luck!

[Stef]

There are several Linux distrubitions that are recompiled only to server as an internet Firewall/Masquerading machine.

Bassically they're all the same, but some have different front end configuration script or GUI to handle the setup process http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

Try these links as well: www.coyotelinux.com (http://www.coyotelinux.com) www.FreeSCO.org (http://www.FreeSCO.org)

Also, if you have any Linux questions please post them at www.speedcorp.net (http://www.speedcorp.net) in the Linux forum http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

[quickfoot]

if you are looking for a reliable, stable, dedicated firewall/nat box with no other services running i'd suggest FreeBSD.

If you are going to run other services on the firwall box (which i would strongly not suggest) then consider OpenBSD.

I would stay away from linux, in my experience freebsd has run better on low end software (p90 with 16 mb of ram, old 400 mb hd) than linux.

You also don't need to recompile your kernel every 20 days to stay secure.

You will have much greater uptime with better load handling.

You might use linux as an end user box but I would stay with Unix for machines and FreeBSD is user-friendly enough to replace linux 99% of the time.