Recommend good router/firewall software OS

[Red Squirrel]

I might possibly acquire an old decommissioned server which is a 1U rackmount and is too low end for actual use, but will be more then enough for a firewall. It has two network cards and a sideways PCI slot so I can add in a standard network card (I would assume it fits anyway) so I could add a DMZ or what not.

What would be a good OS to put on here? I know of smoothwall and a few others. Looking for something that can be quite configurable. I've even thought of just installing a basic linux distro and just doing everything manually through iptables, but something more advanced would be nice, perhaps something with SPI and such.

I'll probably also use it to TCPdump every now and then. I always like being on top of what is going in/out of my network.

 

[stimpyman77]

I think PFsense would totally fit the bill here... There are quite a few addon packages that will help you with inspecting your traffic. Give it a try.. http://www.pfsense.org

 

[RadiclDreamer]

First I'll give you the standard, a dedicated firewall is a better solution because of all the power that server is gonna draw answer.

Next I'll say if you are hellbent on it then go with smoothwall, its built for the job and is a pretty slick project.

 

[Ayah]

I really like PFsense personally. I've got it in a large server case as my router.
Lots of add-ons packages if you want to add them in. There's one for everything you can think of.

 

[Jamsan]

You could give Vyatta a shot - See if it does what you need it to (it's free without the subscription) - http://www.vyatta.com/

 

[arch113]

Astaro isn't bad, they offer free 50ip license for home use.
http://astaro.com http://astaro.org

 

[gsaldivar]

http://www.ebox-platform.com/

 

[Red Squirrel]

Thanks I'll give those a try and see what I like best.

First I'll give you the standard, a dedicated firewall is a better solution because of all the power that server is gonna draw answer.

Next I'll say if you are hellbent on it then go with smoothwall, its built for the job and is a pretty slick project.

Sure, but it also costs a couple grand for a really good one. The home ones are very basic and not all that configurable. I would probably not bother going out to buy a server as a firewall but since I might be getting it for free, figured why not. Power consumption is a concern though as I'm afraid it might overload my UPS, but think since it's fairly old 1U it should not use THAT much. I will find out when I plug it in. Worse comes to worse I have a UPS with a dead battery that I left at my parent's, I might grab it and hookup a marine battery to it. I'm on a tight budget.