router/firewall hardware advice

[JoeHill]

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:38:14 -0400
Alex Maynard disseminated the following:

> Does any one have any suggestions for a newby on choice of router for
> a small (3 pcs) home network with a fixed IP connection?
> 
> If I configure a linux box as a router does it need two NIC cards?

Yes.

> Does it have to be (should it be) a dedicated router?

No, it could do things like act as a print or file server as well, though a
dedicated firewall is always the best practice.

> Are there good linux-friendly hub type routers that can be flexibly
> configured? How are CD/floppy based routers?

I use this one (you just need a floppy drive and two NIC's)

http://freshmeat.net/projects/bbiagent/

There's also:

http://leaf.sourceforge.net/

If you can boot from a CD and have a HD with minimal space, this is the king:

http://www.smoothwall.org/

> Currently I have an SMC router but it doesn't seem to work too well with
> fixed ip (or with linux -- I could only get to the interface using windows
> explorer.) Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I've had a much better time with Linksys routers, not *positive* they will work
with non-IE browsers though.

-- 
JoeHill / RLU #282046 / www.freeyourmachine.org
22:04:36 up 76 days, 21:54, 8 users, load average: 1.41, 1.52, 1.44
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