Linux Router Box

RMSe17 · 08-17-2006, 12:53 PM

Hi, I am interested in creating a router out of my older PC (800MHz P3, 512MB RAM, 120GB HDD).
I have seen some projects out there like Linux Router Project but it seems to me that it is minimalistic, not requiring a hard drive, etc... I would like ability to do NAT, Pot Forwarding, Firewall (someting configurable based on hardware port (or mac address?), protocol port, IP source and dest, maybe type of packets or application based), QOS (with ability to define by port, type of service, ability to allocate % of bandwidth with ranking of priority), Web Admin would be a cool feature too. I would also like to toy with website caching, file server, and maybe some sort of logging and an IDS.

Does my system seem like it would handle those?
Are there premade projects that would do all those?

If not, then
As far as OS goes, which one would be better? I am thinking Linux/OpenBSD/FreeBSD?
I am sure there are probably a bunch of alternatives for the services I would like to have,
any recommendations are welcome, since I am new to all of this.

Thanks,
RMSe17

win32sux · 08-17-2006, 01:03 PM

your box's specs seem fine, but there's really no way to tell if it can handle all these things without knowing what kinda load you're gonna put on it... there are gnu/linux apps to take care of all the things you mentioned... not sure about a distro that comes with all of those out-of-the-box, but maybe look into smoothwall or ipcop or something like that... there's a freebsd-based firewall distro called m0n0wall which you might also be interested in if you wanna go non-linux...

just my

...

RMSe17 · 08-17-2006, 01:12 PM

oups, yea, forgot the load..

Around 10 computers, with cable internet of about 1MB/s download and 100KB/s upload cap,
network traffic is a mix of webpages, gaming (BF2, CS:S, GuildWars, ...), and movie streaming (googlevideo, lectures for classes, etc). On occasion things like Windows Remote Desktop or VNC probably over SSH.

win32sux · 08-17-2006, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RMSe17

oups, yea, forgot the load..

Around 10 computers, with cable internet of about 1MB/s download and 100MB/s upload cap,
network traffic is a mix of webpages, gaming (BF2, CS:S, GuildWars, ...), and movie streaming (googlevideo, lectures for classes, etc). On occasion things like Windows Remote Desktop or VNC probably over SSH.

i take it the 100MB/s is a typo??

of all the functionality you listed, the most CPU-intensive would be the application layer filtering... but still, it sounds like you're good to go with those specs and load... i quote from a linux journal article:

Quote:

Zorp, for example, can proxy 88Mbps worth of HTTP traffic, nearly twice the capacity of a T-3 WAN connection, running on only a 700MHz Celeron system with 128MB of RAM. Zorp, on a dual-processor Pentium system with 512MB of RAM and SCSI RAID hard drives, can handle around 480Mbps, according to the Zorp Professional v2 Product Description, available at www.balabit.com.

the zorp (gpl) page is here: http://www.balabit.com/products/zorp_gpl/

RMSe17 · 08-17-2006, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by win32sux

i take it the 100MB/s is a typo??

Yep, 100KB sorry

I wish it were MB haha

RMSe17 · 08-18-2006, 10:32 AM

I am looking at these premade projects, and they seem pretty cool, I still got to figure out which one to try out first.. I am wondering though, as someone who is but a casual linux user, as far as customizing and adding otehr programs to the router box, would it be easier to get a minimalistic distribution that has apt-get(I am most familiar with this one) package management system, and then add the firewall/NAT/everything else as package installs OR would it be easier to get a linux firewall/nat distribution, and then (and this is my assumption) have harder time tinkering and adding programs since there is apt-get (or is there? I might be mistaken).

My guess is first option is simpler but less secure, second option is more secure but more complicated?

Thanks,
Alex

win32sux · 08-18-2006, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RMSe17

I am looking at these premade projects, and they seem pretty cool, I still got to figure out which one to try out first.. I am wondering though, as someone who is but a casual linux user, as far as customizing and adding otehr programs to the router box, would it be easier to get a minimalistic distribution that has apt-get(I am most familiar with this one) package management system, and then add the firewall/NAT/everything else as package installs OR would it be easier to get a linux firewall/nat distribution, and then (and this is my assumption) have harder time tinkering and adding programs since there is apt-get (or is there? I might be mistaken).

My guess is first option is simpler but less secure, second option is more secure but more complicated?

Thanks,
Alex

there's no reason why either option would be less secure as long as the distros are properly maintained... as for adding stuff, i would say that if you find a firewall distro with everything you need, then you wouldn't have any need to add anything either way... then again, a generic distro like debian probably already has everything you need in its repositories...

BTW, here's another firewall distro to check-out: http://www.endian.it/en/community/