Re: [TCLUG:9900] Linux Router Project questions

[^chewie <chewie@guinness.urw.org>]

On Mon, 8 Nov 1999, Robert Sinland wrote:

RS >  What I would like to be able to do here is have a box of
RS >some type with a NIC and a modem in it that would dial up to
RS >the net on demand, and allow the rest of my boxes (different
RS >shades of windows) to be able to see the net.
RS >
RS >  I was looking into the LRP project, and it _looks_ like that
RS >might work, doesn't really say for sure one way or the other
RS >from what I have read of the FAQ so far.

Well, Robert, it looks like you're on the right track.  I haven't had
any experience with the LRP project yet, but it looks very promising.
LRP is based on the Debian distribution of Linux, but it is very small
in comparison to a base Debian install -- one floppy v.s. 8 MB of
harddrive space. I do wish to experiment a little with the LRP.

I will, in fact, be looking more seriously at LRP, as I am investing
in a couple rack-mount firewall servers.  Right now, they have
harddrives, but the advantage to using a floppy or perhaps an LS120
disk is that you can physically make the disk read-only.  That means
if someone DOES hack your server, they cannot change anything
permanently.  Plus, you can send updated systems through snailmail,
have your remote site admin pop out the old disk, pop in the new one,
and restart the server.  Pretty slick, huh?

As far as hardware requirements for a Firewall/masquerading/nat box,
all you need is:

	486 w/8 or 16 MB of RAM		$0 - 50
	a NIC				$50 - 100
	a serial modem			$20 - 130
	a floppy drive			$5 - 15
        (or LS120			$70 - 100)

You could get away with a system that costs around $150.  If you want
to do anything like transparent, encrypted routing to a Virtual
Private Network, you may want at least a 486DX66 (for a dialup) or
better. Frankly, I'd go with a pentium if I could.

Anyway, good luck :)

Later!

    ^chewie

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