Would like to turn an old PC into a router

[kyzen]

My router died yesterday, and after briefly mourning it's death I went out to look at new routers. After looking at all the $50+ price tags, I began to wonder if I could set up an old computer as a router.

Now I'm not sure if this is better suited here or in Operating Systems. Feel free to call me an idiot if I need to move this 🙂

This is what I'm looking for to get out of a router:

1 - All the features of a normal router (Port Forwarding, basic firewall, etc)
2 - In-depth logging. I'd like to monitor pages visited and such. I'd especially enjoy being able to log information sent out through the router (i.e. if I had the setup going now, I'd like to be able to somehow find the text of this post in a log file). The logging is more for personal amusement & experience than much else.
3 - VPN capabilities. I'd love to be able to connect to my network remotely using my various laptops running XP.
4 - A webserver. This is optional I suppose; if I need a webserver I could always just route traffic to a seperate machine.

So, here's my questions:

1 - What are my first steps in setting up a computer as a router? Do I need Linux or can I do this with Windows Server 2003? What kind of hardware do I need?

2 - How do I go about adding a wireless access point to the new router-machine? Do I need to put a wireless card in it? Can I hook up a wireless router to the network somehow?

3 - What kind of machine do I need for this? I have 4 machines I could spare, which would be better suited for the task:
-200 mhz Pentium (don't know if it's 1 or 2), 128 megs of RAM, 6 gig HD (putting this piece of junk back into service would be lovely)
-2.93 ghz Celecon Pentium D, 1 gig of RAM, 80 gig HD
-2.07 ghz Athlon XP 2800+, 1 gig of RAM, 120 gig HD
-1.53 ghz Athlon XP 1500+, 1 gig of RAM, 80 gig HD (Not sure on the processor model actually).
I could upgrade any of the later 3 rigs to 1.5 gigs of RAM if needed.

4 - What else should I know before going into this?

Thanks in advance for any help 🙂

 

[InlineFive]

I haven't used it (yet) but I hear that PFSense is pretty good. And it should provide all of the requirements you want as well as work on your 200Mhz Pentium box.

 

[Nothinman]

1 - What are my first steps in setting up a computer as a router? Do I need Linux or can I do this with Windows Server 2003? What kind of hardware do I need?

Windows will work with the RRAS stuff, but it's a lot more expensive. All you really need is 2 NICs over and above the normal hardware.

2 - How do I go about adding a wireless access point to the new router-machine? Do I need to put a wireless card in it? Can I hook up a wireless router to the network somehow?

Well if it's going to be an AP it needs some form of wireless card. If you already have a wireless router why would you want to create another one? Creating an AP from a normal machine will be a lot more work in Windows as I don't think most of their drivers support Master mode.

3 - What kind of machine do I need for this? I have 4 machines I could spare, which would be better suited for the task:

For Linux you can use whatever you want, basic routing takes virtually no CPU time. If you really want to run a VPN and webserver on it too you'll need more CPU though. It's generally a bad idea to run anything else on your firewall though so it would be a better idea to put that stuff on a seperate machine. I've seen a lot of people talk about IPCop and m0n0wall for custom firewall distributions, personally I just put Debian on a box and setup what I wanted manually.

 

[boles]

I am a firewall novice but:

I use IPCop and love it more and more. It has all the features you want plus webcache, snort, and more but MINUS the webserver. Webserver running on your firewall machine just opens it up to more chance to be attacked.

Steps:
1) Download ISO and burn to disk (www.ipcop.org)
2) Dust off that OLD 200 mhz machine
3) Install 2 old nics (or more if you want DMZ [orange] and/or wireless [blue] )
4) pop in the disk and away you go
5) I thought setup was easy and i am a linux noob.

That old computer will do ok but the more features/traffic you have the more memory you may need. I started off with an AMD 233 mhz and 128 and it was fine. I then got a dual 400mhz w/512 for 10 bucks from a yard sale and that thing has too much power for the 6 computers i have running.

If the webserver is mandatory look into clarkconnect. never used it but have played with it a couple times.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention i have wireless via access point that is plugged into my green network.

 

[yuppiejr]

ClarkConnect, IPCop, Mon0wall or Smoothwall are all fine suggestions. I know ClarkConnect will do VPN and the web server stuff you're looking for, not sure about logging though. I am pretty sure they all throw out an excessive (compared to an "off the shelf" router) amount of logging so I don't think that will be an issue.

I'm looking for a solution that will let me run independant LANs for DMZ, wireless AP's and local LAN traffic in addition to the internet facing connection while managing QOS for devices by MAC address, IP or traffic type regardless of which segment they are in. So far I'm still playing with the different products to find the right combination of features and compatibility with my hardware and internet connection. Good luck!

 

[amdskip]

I just setup a smoothwall box for an elementary school and I am beyond amazed. It has tons of features and ad ons. The logging is amazing. It will record everything you want and a little more. I setup content filtering and locked it down good. I have a bypass setup with passwords for teachers so they can view websites mistakingly blocked by the content filtering.

I have it setup on an old dell with 256mb of memory and its more than enough. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

 

[thespeakerbox]

Clarkconnect