There was a guy, I helped out once, he was using some thing called "andLinux" !! Ever heard that before ?

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I work for a small boutique engineering company which is highly sophisticated in CAD/CAM and 5-axis machining.

We use to have about 20 windows computers, 4 machining centers, 6 wirecut machines and 2 printers all setup via windows network sharing. It was horrible. Latency over the network, frequently dropped internet connections and no control over of who is doing what on the internet. Most of all it was just hugely unstable.

So we had someone come in and re-setup the network for us. We needed a cheap solution as we're a privately held company (ie someone really cares as to how much money is spent), although our biggest requirement was stability and then security. We just couldn't afford the inconvenience and irritation which our network was causing us, and that what would happen if we were ever hacked into.

So the network was setup with IPCOP (free) just over 2 years ago. IPCOP being the gateway, all original cabling was used from the previous network. I think we got another switch in. We've never had to call that person back again. I think our network has gone down perhaps... mmm... perhaps twice over those two years. It's been absolutely superb.

Part of my job? ha ha, well no we're too small to have job descriptions in this company. If it needs to be done, then it needs to be done. My CAD/CAM skills are the most junior so I took this on whilst the boys work on the stuff which makes us money.

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oh no, not to worry. I understand this kind of distribution now. Particularly after reading the below taken from the link you gave me: FAQ: Customising IPCop

Can I customise my IPCop box?

Because your IPCop box is based on Linux, many of the features used in Linux can be made available by your firewall. IPCop is made to be easy to use, and the web interface reflects that. There are many features that are not made accesible by the web interface in order to keep it simple.

The important thing to remember is that the IPCop box is primarily a firewall and a router. All the other features are "nice to have". Anything you do to your IPCop box could reduce it's effectiveness, and the programmers won't be looking out for security holes in programs you have added, so they won't be making patches either.

If you want something more general purpose than a dedicated firewall you can have a look at the Gateway/Servers at this comparision list.


Where do I start?

First of all, IPCop is missing many of the programs usually found in a Linux distribution. This is deliberate, as the lower number of applications means the system is simpler, and easier to keep secure

Because of this, our way in and out of the IP-Cop box is via a program called SSH. SSH is a secure command line interface which allows remote access. Normally, SSH uses port 22, but in order to allow port 22 to be forwarded elsewhere, port 222 is used on the IP-Cop box.

Most Linux distributions now include the SSH suite of programs, and there is a freeware Windows client called PuTTY. SSH includes a file transfer client called SCP, and there is also a freeware Windows version called WinSCP. Between these two programs, you should have all the tools you need to customise IP-Cop.

so, do you use any distro at home,etc?
I mean a user Desktop distro..?

mmm... nope. I'm using putty to get into this box from windows 7. We unfortunately only run windows.

Our engineering software doesn't run on anything else and someone stole my mac in Budapest.

why do you ask?

I was just wonderin...
Women are kinda scarce in the Linux world it seems and so I was just curious if you also used Linux at home, etc...

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ha ha ha, ja. what can I say. i'd be surprised too.

GNU is not a Linux distro.

Linux is not a full OS, it's just the kernel. GNU is a full OS, but they haven't finished the kernel yet (search for Hurd if you're interested). They decided to stick together and they work (they are both Unix clones) to be the OS we know as GNU/Linux. Even though Linux really means the kernel, most people just use it as an abbreviation of GNU/Linux.

A "Linux" distro is GNU/Linux with an installer and prepackaged software of the distro's choice.

lol
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