i have an extra computer, its not the fastest. but its not bad either. i was wondering if i could turn it into some kind of firewall for the connection from my internet to my network? if so how? and exactly what all would this do to "help" my other systems?

yeah, you can make a linux router out of something as old as a 486, maybe even a 386...

you'd use iptables for this... you can get good info here:

http://www.linuxguruz.com/iptables/


if you want a text-based front-end to iptables:

http://www.shorewall.net/


if you want a graphical front-end to iptables:

http://firestarter.sourceforge.net/

That's a few rather generic questions :)

The generic answer is: yes, you, quite easily, too.

The how depends on the hardware we're looking
at.

As for the good it does your other boxes:
That quite depends on how you set the firewall
up, whether you lock down unnecessary ports,
only allow established connections, ...


Cheers,
Tink

depending on the computer there are several distros that come to mind, have a google for

smoothwall

ipcop

lrp

there are are more, but, off the top of my head i can't remember. the different distros have different system requirements, so that will be something to look at for the box in question. hope theres something here that can help you, or answer your questions.
good luck.

<edit>beat to the draw by the Tinkster, what can i say, glad we're playing for the same team. </edit>

<double edit> that was surreal, the first time i was taken to the post, Tinkster was the first response, in retrospect, we were both beaten to the draw, wow what fun. </double edit>