I run a home network of three XP computers. At the moment the one computer with a modem shares a dialup internet connection using XP’s ICS. This system was working fine up until a few weeks ago, when a virus infection (since remedied) caused the server to start acting up, using the net on a client became troublesome.

After numerous attempts to fix the problem I decided that instead of reinstalling windows I would get the old P100 out and try to set up a dedicated internet gateway server.

Now here is the question:

Given that I:
· Am unfamiliar with Linux (but eager to learn!)
· Use dialup internet
· Want to be able to easily (and quickly) connect and disconnect from client pcs
· Want to be able to use filesharing programs, MSN messenger and occasionally online games without too much trouble.
· Will be running everything on a Pentium 100, 32Mb ram, 1.2Gb HD
· Wish to use a ‘winmodem’ if possible (I’ve heard this can be done using special drivers. The modem I plan to use is this one: KTX FM-56K-PCII V90/56KFlex, GVC Model F-1156IV+/A2A, Lucent 1646 (Mars-2) chipset, I found something about using it with Linux but am unable to post the URL (due to forum policy) but is goes on to say "On this page you'll find Linux driver (sources, binary packages) and documentation for so called Winmodems with Lucent Apollo (ISA) and Mars (PCI) chipsets." which sounds like what i need. I realise that this may make the process unnecessarily difficult, and am prepared to buy a Linux supported modem if required.)

Which Linux version would be best suited for this task?

I’ve searched around a bit and come up with a few Linux builds dedicated to internet gateways such as BBI Agent, Coyote Linux, FreeSCO etc. Has anyone else tried something like this, and if so was it successful? Are there any guides out there catering to this kind of setup?

Recommendations and comments awaited…

Thanks in advance

Tim

Have a look at smoothwall

floppyfw is also good but I am unsure if that will handle a dialup.

I'd say, get a "normal" modem. A second hand one from one of the big brandnames such as usrobotics shouldn't cost that much. Then have a look at freesco, it's well documented, flexible and quite secure.

Smoothwall is the way to go. It runs great on a p100 or whatever. My smoothie is a p166.

smothwall takes very little to set up and you only need a 500-1000 meg drive and a CD rom to do the install (then you can pull the CD out.

Everyone on the network can talk to the smoothie box with their browser and connect to the net (dial out) and stuff. It has a dial level password and then an admin level passwork so you can restrict some people to just dialing up.

You need no screen or keybord on the smoothie box after install. It runs a firewall to protect the win boxes and had intrusion detection and even more features, dns, dhcp, web proxy, etc...

Yes, I am on dialup, which is shared to 6 PC's...

The winmodem may be a problem tho...

tim

Thanks for the replys!

Ill download smoothwall tonight,

A few questions before i go ahead and try it:

So is smoothwall fine with filesharing/messengers? ('Automatic Port Forwarding' is what its called right?)
How easy is it to connect/disconnect, as i will often need to do it in a hurry (only one phone line) and wont hear the end of it if its more difficult than the old Win ICS system.
Regarding "normal" modems, Im in New Zealand so USR modems aren't that cheap or easy to come by, the only one ive seen so far is about US$160 (NZ$255).
Must it be a hardware/external modem? as they seem so expensive, i dont really want to pay too much incase it all goes wrong and i go back to using WinXPs ICS,

amosf, what kind of modem do you use?

I did download Freesco, and will give it a go if smoothwall doesnt perform.

Tim

Smoothwall seems to handle most things fine, tho you may need to open ports for some things (like p2p)... Forewarding ports with it is easy and it's just a matter of typing in the port and the ip of the machine you want to send it to.

It's easy to connect and my computer illiterate wife handles it well, as do all the kids... Too well Once the browser has the smoothwall address bookmarked you just open the smoothie page and click the connect (or disconnect) button.

Modem... I'm out in the bush in australia and so I use a Maestro Woomera, which wasn't cheap. I think I paid AU$400 for it. But I have friends here using $80 external modems that do work, just not as well as mine...

There is a smoothwall mailing list and you can ask these things there. There may be mods to help get it working with winmodems...

Well, after a bit of mucking around about various smoothwall forums and websites...

My Smoothwall server is up and running.....

On a WINMODEM!

Thanks for the recommendations, it is a great little program.

Tim

Can you share how smootwall and your winmodem worked

This is the post i followed, not quite word for word, i had to customize it for my pc, but the all the ideas are there:

http://community.smoothwall.org/foru...modem+linmodem