How hard is it to set up a combo Linux router + file server for a complete Linux noob?

[fuzzybabybunny]

1. I'm fed up with my POS Linksys WRT54G and dying from torrents.

2. I have 6 IDE drives that I want to put into a *fast* file server.

3. I have a second box with an A64 3400+ and an Asus K8V with 3Com Marvell Gigabit NIC that I will use as the server.

4. I have an Intel Gigabit card.

5. My main computer is a 4GHz Intel PD805 with P5ND2 and integrated Intel Gigabit.

I have absolutely no experience with Linux. I've got Ubuntu installed on the second box, but I haven't gotten around to installing the IDE controller card yet.

Questions:

1. Can someone give me a really beginner walkthrough on how to set up a Linux box as a router?

2. What network speeds can I expect to get with this setup? My file sizes will most likely be from 20MB to 8GB.

3. Can I expect utter stability?

4. Can I control everything on the Linux box via my Windows machine? (ie. transfer an 8GB ISO to the Linux box and have it compress it to 4.7GB, all controlled via the Windows machine) What do I use for this?

5. Is regular Cat5 cable good enough for Gigabit speeds? Or should I replace it all with Cat6?

6. My current router can only handle about 500 simultaneous TCP/IP connections before it crashes and burns. How many connections can a Linux box handle?

 

[Goosemaster]

1. Can someone give me a really beginner walkthrough on how to set up a Linux box as a router?

Go to the Ubuntu forums, and search the forum. Programs like kfirewall can do most of the heavily lifting but you will need to read a lot. In general, unless you know your way around, your system will have to use a lot of unnecessary resources to provide you with access to these apps.

My recommendation is that under windows or Linux, virtually run one of the routing apps out there and let them bridge with your NICs. Anything from m0n0wall(link) to ClarckConenct to Astaro will work. That way you can take advantage of premade setups.


Frankly running a m0n0wall vmware image under linux would be neat and it would use a limited amount of resources from what I gather.

For storage on linux, you can use samba, which is basically CIFS (windows networking). For the most part it will be painless and give you great speeds. Usually, access via FTP is bulletproof and always provides you with the fastest speeds, nto that samba won't give you the same results. It depends.

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2. What network speeds can I expect to get with this setup? My file sizes will most likely be from 20MB to 8GB.

It will max out your connection. The 266mhz geode processor on my router can handle 400 connections without blinking.

3. Can I expect utter stability?

If you set it up correctly, yes.

4. Can I control everything on the Linux box via my Windows machine? (ie. transfer an 8GB ISO to the Linux box and have it compress it to 4.7GB, all controlled via the Windows machine) What do I use for this?

using samba you can transfer just like you would with another machine. the display mechanism in linux, the gui, that you will see in Ubuntu (gnome) runs on top of Xwindows, and there is an xwindows remote program installed by default with ubuntu. You can basically login remotely to the machine, seeing the desktop and everything, just like remote desktop. That said, the remote program is called VNC, and it is actually multi platform, so there is a client for windows or any other OS. The main problem is that the basic setup is unsecured. Seeing as how this will be a router, I would setup the RC4 plugin that coems with the program. A little googling will show you that you create a key using the program, and place that file on both pcs. It's pretty easy to secure it, and there are more advanced methods such as using ssh

5. Is regular Cat5 cable good enough for Gigabit speeds? Or should I replace it all with Cat6?

cat5e will get you gigabit speeds, cat5 will not. if you can get cat6 get it.

6. My current router can only handle about 500 simultaneous TCP/IP connections before it crashes and burns. How many connections can a Linux box handle?

from you specs, I doubt you will be able to kill it. Your line will die before the pc.

For reference, for 1.6ghz p4 pc running astaro can handle 655Mbps of regular traffic if I recall correctly


have fun😛.

Now get lost...you have a lot of reading to do😉

 

[Dravic]

you are not going to find many combo packages for both a very good linux firewall and a file server all rolled into one.

They contain very dfferent purposes often times at odds with each other. You may be able to get smoothwall and check out their homebrew(mods) section for a solution.

you could build a linux server from scrtach and install ipchains(or your prefered firewall) and ftp(your fav file sharing software here), This would be the leanest, and best option but the most labor intensive to get the configs right and running.

If this is going to be your internet router/firewall, then i dont recommend hosting anything on it. I come from a security school of layers, and you never put the target on the same box as the protection layer.

500 simul connections.... thats some heavy filesharing..

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Dravic

500 simul connections.... thats some heavy filesharing..

not really😉