firewall/router
 

is it possible to setup a dedicated firewall/dsl router? how would i set it up and what hardware would i need?

basically, to set-up a firewall gateway, you'd need two network interfaces... one goes to the internet and the other goes to your switch/hub (local network)...

the internet interface is your "external" interface, and your lan interface is your "internal" one...

your internal interface gets a private ip such as (for example) 192.168.0.1, while your external interface uses whatever ip your isp provides you with...

you'd need to configure netfilter using iptables to do either MASQUERADING (if your external ip is dynamic) or SNAT (if your external ip is static)...

the idea is that the machines on your lan all get private ips (for example 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, etc.) and use the linux box as their gateway...

here's a link with good iptables info:

http://www.linuxguruz.com/iptables


there's also "front-ends" to iptables such as shorewall, firestarter, and guarddog:

http://www.shorewall.net

http://firestarter.sourceforge.net

http://www.simonzone.com/software/guarddog/

so can i just use my dsl modem/router and connect it to the external interface or will i need a dedicated dsl modem or something..

yeah, you just connect the modem to the external interface, like usual...

the only difference is you're gonna have a second interface card which will be used to connect to the LAN now...