• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Linux Gateway/Proxy/NAT/DHCP/whatever

J

JoeDaddy

Banned
I'm looking to build a Linux box that will allow me to share my @home connection. I was just going to add another nic to my 2000 server, but I figured I should give Linux another try. I also would like it to have a firewall as well.

Here are my questions:

  1. 1
What version/distro should I use?
  1. 2
How hard is it to configure, and are there any good publications documenting it step by step?
  1. 3
Will this machine be fast enough? P166 w/ 64mb ram


Thanks for the input guys.

 
Check out FreeSCO if all you wanna use it for is that gateway/NAT/DHCP stuff. It would suit your needs just fine, without having to struggle through learning an entire new OS for one simple task.
 
The machine will be plenty fast.

As far as distros, pick one your comfortable in, and you might as well pick a stable older version instead of the brand new one. My distro of choice happens to be redhat 6.2 even though I've tried caldera and slack as well (hell I started in linux on slack years ago even...) Anyway first install all the bugfixes/security updates on it!
This is a good read http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/network/eznetshare.html
Here is good too
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/network/ipchains.html

You'll probably be able to skip the kernel recompile since most distros come with ipchains compiled in already. Expect to spend a few hours playing with it at first, but after you work the kinks out and figure out everything you'll be able to set up such a machine very quickly!
 
Thanks Perry and Soybomb. I tried out FreeSCO and its working great. Infact I'm typing this on one of the machines connect to it. Thanks again guys.
 
That was pretty quick to get the whole thing up and going. I guess this shows the merits of those highly specialized distros.
 
I am running freesco aswell. Almost the same system specs, except i only have 48 megs of ram. Took me 10 mins to set it up. Its been running non-stop for almost 1 month now. Works great and i am able to host my own web page now.
 
Yes, its seems to get the job done and I like the interface. I ended up putting it on the HD so that it would boot faster. But it is supposed to have a web interface option as well. but I have yet to try that out. Its fairly straight forward and as long as you know your settings you can have it up and running quick.

I have run into a couple things so far.

1.) I've gotten two weird cryptic error messages about memory fault. Both times I've had to reboot the machine before any users could connect. But I don't think its a problem w/ the install or anything. When I was putting this machine together I had some problems w/ the memory and I think the memory is bad. I'll swap it out this evening and find out.

2.) The second problem was that I had a 2gb hard drive partioned as Fat32 and when I tried to run

<< move2hdd >>

it kept telling me that it couldn't find hda01, which was weird because I knew the HD was there and functioning fine because I had copied files to and fro just fine.

I do think the first error is related to the memory, but it might also be this hard drive. I didn't get this error until I moved FreeSCO to the hard drive and created a 32MB swap file.
Anywho I'll run PC Pro and see what it comes up with. Thanks again guys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top