Ok well you want a response? i can only tell you what my experience has taught me:
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke1_28
This may have been thrown up here - or something similar - but I couldn't find it if it has.
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it has, i guess you didnt search this site?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ui-use-120549/
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke1_28
This is what irritates me the most about open source - NOT open source itself - but the indignant arrogance of those in the community who KNOW everything but share nothing. Why even have a site called "Linux Questions"?
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you really need to have searched, at least proven to someone that what your asking really hasnt been asked before. if you follow the link above you will see that the people in the community who actually know something, know that the above post exists and that you havent taken the time to look for it. also, this is a networking part of the forum, you should really be asking networking related questions (how to i route to a network? how do i scan for wifi from linux?), not general questions (whats the best distro with a gui?)
i actually typed your statement into google (What's the best distro out there with a gui?) and the first hit was the above link.
why call a site linux questions, you ask? look around and learn something!!!
ok so lets move on..
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke1_28
I have a box - 2 onboard NIC's, 2 PCI 3Com NIC's. The onboard of course are identical. The PCI NIC's are identical. ('cept for the MAC addresses )
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I have a similar setup: dell server, 4 interfaces, load balancing 3 wan connections..
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke1_28
With these 4 NIC's I want to plug in 3 ISP provided cable modems. I want the 4th NIC to offer the traffic from the server to a content filter, which then plugs into a router.
All 3 of the cable modems are dynamically assigned IP addresses.
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its easier with static ip's. that being said doesnt mean it cant be done with dynamic ip address's
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke1_28
Load balancing across the NIC interfaces is desirable. I know it won't increase my speed....yada yada yada....but in centrally managing the modems - I want "Building 1" to get "Cable Modem 1" b/w allocation, etc. etc.
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load balancing internet connections will not gain total bandwidth (you cant tie the connections into 1 big one), unless you are in close communication with your provider(s) and they set up load balancing at their end too (originating ip's will come from different mac's and will confuse the router, which may end up dropping packets or do something you dont want)
You can, however, load balance routes. this means you if you have 3 1meg connections, you will never be able to reach 3meg from one external host, but a file sharing application like a torrent may reach the 3meg, becuase it connects to many hosts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke1_28
Looking for free and easy. What's the best distro out there with a gui? I can navigate command line well enough, but I have to make this project so that others in my absense can administrate and I don't get called in from vacation and whatnot.
Thanks,
luke1_28
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I use centos its free, they say its based on rhel which isnt. i used to use fedora, but i found cent to have better networking which is most of what my machine does. trixbox is based on centos, and since we had both fedora and trixbox (its a free pbx) for a while i was able to compare the two. the trixbox was more stable more network responsive. after comparing the two i migrated all our machines to cent. since then most of my problems have gone away. (no i am not affiliated with centos - i just work in a networking world!)
if you want to make it 'user friendly' then write some scripts so that everything is looked after on its own. on my server i do nothing. it just works, and continues to do so. i havent had a 'serious' (touch wood) problem in the past year or so..
if you really need a gui, take a look at zebra - apparently its a gui based 'networking' until or something like that (does bgp, ospf, etc). i have a customized kernel on my machine - because of missing network stuff i use - its only command line, even at the console - its a server after all.. sometimes its better not to have a gui, becuase those who dont know, wont even know where to begin and they probably shouldnt be there to begin with.
hope that helps and good luck.. theres probably 1000 different distributions of linux. I'd start with the main ones, then go from there. download a live cd, give it a go. its not windows, so dont expect it too be.
..and remember.. google is always your friend!
http://www.google.com/search?q=What%...ient=firefox-a