I need some feedback here.

I am going to setup a IPTables firewall on a little P133 machine I have here.
The only problem is that it does not have a CD-ROM drive and I do not have any extra drives lying around.

Does anyone have a recommendation on how to get Linux installed onto this computer?

I would appreciate any input.

Thanks.

Tarballed

You can do an installation over a network (if you've got a network of course ).

From memory, you can do an FTP installation, as well as via HTTP. I'm sure there are other ways, so anyone else -- feel free to jump in and add/correct anything I've said.

you can use those dist onf loppy drives some of them has ipchains on them (or maybe iptables)

There are several router projects that can be installed and or run from a floppy drive. smoothwall, frazierwall etc.

http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/

I have thought about going that route.

However, I would like to get some experience with either IPChains or IPTables, preferablly IPTables.

I was hoping that I could install either Red Hat or Slackware onto this little box.

I was trying to pick my brain to see if it is possible to install Linux onto this little rig without using a CD-ROM.

Can you perform a FTP install of Red Hat or Slack? What about a FTP install of Mandrake, Suse or Debian? I would prefer RH or Slack though. Once i get the OS on, the rest will be easy.

Thanks guys.

Tarballed

Ok, I know Debian is installable via FTP.

What about Slack or RH?
Possible to install either of these through FTP?

Tarballed.

You could try NFS
Theres a network boot disk for slack, if you got HD space, you could copy all the packages you need.. Its possible it comes with NFS.

I once ran a slack NFS installation though a slip connection, very painful.. Took like a weekend..

Actually, you just gave me an idea.

I currently have a RH 8.0 box on my home network. Would it be possible, through NFS, to install RH 8.0 on the little soon to be firewall box?

If so, do you have a link on how I would do that? I have yet to venture into NFS, but I am very interested in doing so.

Thanks everyone.

Tarballed

Sometimes I will just move the hard drive to another machine with a CDROM do the install then move it back. Seems to work okay for console stuff. I wouldn't think I could get away with configuring Xwindows on one videocard and running it on another.
Good Luck.