Router OS?

[PowerMacG5]

I currently have a computer setup as a router/NAT box. The OS that is currently on it is ClarkConnect 1.1. What I am wondering is if you think I should put a true linux distro on it, not just a router distro. Do you guys think I should set it up using a traditional Linux distro, so that I can have it as a linux box as well, and use all the software for Linux, or just leave it to the simple setup of ClarkConnect? If I use a traditional distro, I plan on doing all of the iptables configurations through webmin or linuxconf. So what do you all think? Thanks for all of your help.

 

[Kadarin]

While I'm not familiar with the specifics of using Linux as a router, I can tell you what my philosophy would be. In my opinion, if the router is "mission critical", that is, being used in a business or home office where money is on the line and it absolutely, positively has to be up, I'd leave it as it is. If, however, it's a home box you're just screwing around with, then I'd probably go ahead and install a standard Linux distro on it and use it for other things as well.

 

[PowerMacG5]

Thanks for your reply. about 3 hours ago I removed ClarkConnect, and put on Mandrake 9.0. I have to say everything is now much snappier. I can transfer files between the comps using SAMBA a lot faster than before, and I set up the iptables configuration file (in my case rc.firewall) in only a few minutes. I also set rc.fireall to load automatically when Linux boots, and I set it to default to runlevel 3. Once again, thank for your help.