Just wondering with out getting a war started, what is the best distribution to use for networking?
I am looking for easy setup and cofiguring, and also a fairly high level of security.

just hoping some of you could help, as i have had too much varying advice from friends, and collegues.

thanks.

Kieran

this is objective.
From my experience I fually recommend you are going to install
LinuxMandrake distrio. it is easy and good for beginners.
it is very easy to setup ( a few click is ok) and easy to configure.

But if you want to forcus on security I think Enterprise Turbo
Linux distro is best solution for you.
If you have a chance to face FreeBSB it is very powerful and reliable. But a little hard to set up. you might to need some
experience. Thanks. sorry for poor English.

If you really want security the best way is to make it secure by configuring it yourself. It doesn't really matter which distro you use for that, any one which you feel comfortable with will do. The best way to start is by searching the web and reading up on ways to secure a linux box. Or try browsing this forum to find out about suggested ways to lock it up tight.

from my experience, there really isn't a best distro for networking.. they all seem the same to me, with installation and setup. for security, that depends on you the person administering it on how secure you want it.

Every disto is capable of every trick. It all depends on the matter of expertease you have.

For ease: Mandrake, as mentioned before has a great little GUI front-end for fiddling with your firewall and services.

For outright security: Slackware with the kernel mod set from the NSA, portsentry, Smoothwall maybe, and a world of time for the self abuse its going to take to really lock it down.

Other: OpenBSD; no remote root in a default install in 5 years. Ease of use: none. Learning it would probably be more of a beast than modding a Linux Distro to do the job.

Sorry if that sounded daunting.

Cheers,

Finegan