Hi,
I've recently found that I can now recieve broadband in my area (BT landline) and just wanted to ask a few questions.
I know quite a bit about computers but never got into the networking side of it, apart from a modem and phone line.

I'd like to know if I can use an old P166 as a router? to connect my main PC and Playstation 2 to.

if so, what would be the best distro to use for such an old machine.
if not, what minimum specs would I need, and what distro?

Also, the broadband company I want to use charge £70 for a usb modem. So I'd rather buy parts off ebay or something.
What hardware will I need and what type? network cards etc

Im not looking for really indepth answers on how to set router up etc, more of a simple guide....


thanks



ps wasnt sure which forum this should have been in. Appologies if it should be in networking

You'll need three nics to do it, one for the connection to the broadband modem and one for each device that will connect to the router. That's probably about $40 if you don't already have them. IMHO you can get one of those nice five port routers from linksys for not much more and it will save you a ton of time in setting up. That would leave your P2 box which you could set up as a file server for doing network backups which you could connect and network through the router.
There are many distros that run off a floppy which are designed to be used to convert old PCs to router/firewalls if you want to go that route. But routers are so cheap now I wouldn't bother unless your just interested in the project as a learning experience. I think you would probably learn more about networking by setting up the P2 as a file server for your little network and the thing has a hard drive so why not use it.