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Thinking of replacing my router with a full computer -- which install to use?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 4644
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D

Deleted member 4644

I am thinking of moving to a full computer (core2duo) for my SOHO needs.

What install should I look at? I saw EBOX and liked it. Untangle is another I have heard of. And pfsense.

What else is out there?
I sorta like the idea of being able to run a web server on it. Is this a bad idea? (To run a web server on your firewall box) ? Also like the idea of being able to see a "log" of attack attempts.

Thoughts?

I do not have any real experience using linux (other than ubuntu on my laptop for a while).

But part of this is about learning new things.

List I have so far:

Ebox
pfsense
Clear (clarkconnect)
untangle
icop
monowall
smoothwall
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I run pfsense. The only thing it does for me is routing and I love the damn thing. You pretty much just set it up and leave it.
 
Deleted member 4644 said:
I am thinking of moving to a full computer (core2duo) for my SOHO needs.

What install should I look at? I saw EBOX and liked it. Untangle is another I have heard of. And pfsense.

What else is out there?

I sorta like the idea of being able to run a web server on it. Also like the idea of being able to see a "log" of attack attempts.

Thoughts?

I do not have any real experience using linux (other than ubuntu on my laptop for a while).

But part of this is about learning new things.

List I have so far:

Ebox
pfsense
Clear (clarkconnect)
untangle
icop
monowall
smoothwall
Click to expand...

when i was running a computer as router/firewall. I was using smoothwall express 3. I liked it. The installation portion is pretty easy to do. Once it up and running, the user interface for smoothwall is all web base
 
I love Endian. Very easy to configure & many functionalities, all web based. No Linux experience required.
 
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You don't need anything remotely close to a Core2Duo for a routing computer. I run Smoothwall Express 3 on a Celeron 1.8Ghz in an office with 20-25 users and it NEVER goes above 20% CPU utilization even when everyone is active on the Internet at the same time.
 
Yeah, I have a five-year-old 2.53 GHz P4 Celeron running my entire SBS 2003 server (with Exchange, SQL, and ISA server), also acting as my router/firewall. All of my web traffic goes through ISA (a software firewall), including my VOIP phone lines. The only time it had any utilization issues was when I was trying to make backups of the server and make phone calls at the same time. The phone calls got choppy sometimes.
 
I personally have used Untangle as a college project and that project resulted in a permanent installation on my home network. Pretty much any hardware made 4-6 years ago are very good for a firewall application, as you'll rarely put it in a stressed state.
 
anything that will run with an open case and all fan's broken. my last was a pentium-pro - the vid card and cpu fan froze up with dust, it lived in a closet and the power supply fan froze up too (i know fire hazard, i was young then). but it never once gave up ghost. no UPS on it either lol. it was friggen amazing the hard drive like 3 or 4GB didn't kick it first.

so i'd do a big heatsink setup passive cooling. open box special
 
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