Let me apologize ahead of time for questions that are basic, I have not networked anything let alone set up a Linux firewall or File Server.

I have an old PIII 450 lying around that I could buy some cheap RAM for. I have two Windows and Linux Dual boot PCs set up. I would like to make the old PIII into a file server and, if feasible, a firewall which would then connect downline to a D-Link DI-604 firewall router.

Which filesystem do you suggest, so that all files are accessible by Linux and Windows xp from either PC ? The files will be JPEG, various MS Office documents, videos which I have not yet moved from my Mini-DV camcorder - so I really don't know what format those will be in after they are edited.

which Linux do you suggest for this purpose > easy to set up firewall and easy to set up file server ?

Which NIC cards seem to work the best for this? Should I pay the premium for Intel or will Linux get along pretty well with cheaper ones ?

any other advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill

Openfiler would be good for this - or another Linux distribution which you are already comfortable with.

Basically, all you need is a working NIC, a Linux distribution, and a copy of Samba. Any NIC that works with Linux will be good enough - although preferably get one which is as fast as your network is, and make sure it's ethernet (far more reliable than wireless).

Then, get your chosen Linux distribution (Openfiler is made for this precise purpose - network storage), and install Samba on it. Then, all you will need to do is either use TCP wrappers (e.g. use your /etc/hosts.allow file to only accept connections from your subnet - the IP addresses on your network), or use IPTables to block all traffic not coming to the server from within your network. This isn't completely secure - but, as long as all the other clients on the network are secured and you have a good SPI firewall in front of them all, you should be fine.

Then, all you need to do is configure Samba appropriately - set up authentication if you wish, and then set the correct access controls (who has accept to what files, who can read and write to the server, etc).

That should do the trick

Cheers,

-jk