Hi, I'm looking to build a router/firewall/ips system. I have a DSL modem, then I can use a crossover to get to the box, and then I want to connect the box to a switch to the rest of the network. I'd like to do some things to it though, like have advanced firewall capabilities, good security, and I was thinking of using snort to filter packets, dropping things that look like exploits, drop advertisements, look for brute forcing on FTP and SSH, ping bombs, and such. I'd also like to do some traffic shaping, like under full load on the DSL line I'd like to be able to specify which computers get more bandwidth, etc. I'll be using a Pentium MMX machine with a 5 gig hard drive, cdrom, and 2 nics. Anybody know how hard this would be and have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

The one I use is Smoothwall. There's also IPCop.

You also might consider going hardcore by reconfiguring the cat5 cable connecting your DSL modem to your IPS box by removing the transmit pairs, so your IPS box in the middle cannot transmit. One of my friends did this but instead of using a switch, he simply :
1. DSL modem here
2. Hub here ------> cat5 to firewall/switch----lan
3. cat5 with transmit pairs removed from hub connected to IPS/snort

This way the snort box is completely apart from your lan.