Cheap Linux Router!

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s0me0ne

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OK so youve got this old 408 or what ever and your to broke to go out and spend the $60 on a dlink/linksys. Dont worry Ive got the free one right here.
http://www.smoothwall.org/ go there and get there latest version, Download, and burn to a cd. Ok so for your little machine youve got there you need 2-3 network cards
to put in it. 1 your red interface [THE INTERNET] 2 your green interface [ YOUR LOCAL LAN] 3 your yellow interface [ YOUR DMZ BOX (used for webservers, mail servers, dns servers]
So now install the nics you wish into your machine. Install the software and away you go. BingoBango youve got a 'smoothy.' IF you have any problems check the docs, the site, or irc.smoothwall.org and ask some one. Dont worry there really nice.........most of the time muahahaha. Ok so your smoothys all setup. connect to http://<the ip you gave the box>:81
thats right 81. if you just do http://<ip of smoothy> it wont work. :) ok so now login with the admin and password you set and lets see'er! ok first of goto the services tab then to DCHP. This is probibly what you want it for the most anyways. Fill in your DHCP info, start address, finish address, ISP DNS servers (if you want) Fill in the Domain name suffix if you want to what ever. i.e. s0me0ne so when you do ipconfig it will show s0me0ne....or what ever. IF you look near the bottom of the page youll see something......Add a new static assignment:
woooo now when you add a machine it will always get that ip. no more of this 192.168.1.100 then 192.168.1.101 the next day. Really helps with port forwarding and other fun networking stuff. Finish up there weve got more to goto on this little vision quest here! In the row with DHCP look for Intrusion Detection System aka snort ;) Enable it. Now when you goto logs you can check your IDS logs and see whos port scanning you and fun stuff like that. Ok enuff fun, you can look around later! Right now goto maintenance and click updates! there you should see a few updates needed to patch this little guy. download the patches from the links to a local folder on your machine. Oh say, i dunno C:\swupdates
then load them as needed. If they say reboot after install, give'em that much. Do it :) Ok So now youve got an updated router.....but s0me0ne I want to forward ports so my web/ftp server works! OK! Fine! you dont have to yell, hehe just kidding. Ok goto Networking, Then to port forwarding! You will see 4 feilds. Leave the first one blank to allow all internet connctions to connect to you (unless you want other wise) In the port feild you can do 1 port or a range. I.e. 80 or 80:81, put in the destination ip (your machine or which ever machine the forward is going too) then the port if needed....or just leave blank and it will use the same one. Click ad and your done.

Finishing notes.

1) You will have to figure out which card is which interface for cable'en. Red gos to your modem, green to your computer/hub/switch, yellow to your dmz box.
2) These guys have a mod section in the forums whare you can get better firewall scripts/addons so you can do more, limmit bandwidth per ips, stuff like that, its a great place. Theres lots of smart people working on it.
3) It alwso handles dynamic dns from a host of free companys so your ip can change and your name will stay the same.

Closing

I think this is way better then a linksys or dlink router because you can do more, and its free.

This will take a little bit of reading to get the full power out of this little guy but its fun. you really are the master of your own domain here.
pardon the pun

if you need help or what ever pm me. ill help you out

s0me0ne.
 
Thats pretty cool. I think the cost of electricity for running the computer would come out to more than the cost of the router over time though.
 
I would agree given a long enuff time lime. But! but but but! your linksys could die on you, and you do get alot more customization and controll...oh and vpn support. to get a linksys with vpn used to be about double the cost, not sure now. The choice is yours.
 
Thanks, this is helpful for the basics of Smoothwall. I just got an old pc a few days ago and installed Smoothwall on it and I'm having problems configuring it with my wireless router.
 
You can also try m0n0wall, based off FreeBSD http://m0n0.ch/wall/

There's a bootable CD version for a quick router if you ever run into problems with your old one and just need a quick fix. Will run right off the CD, 64MB or 128MB is recommended for RAM. Supports almost the same features as SmoothWall but with more.

There's also IPCop http://ipcop.org/

There's probably a dozen out there, plus Windows ICS or Linux IPTable can get the job done also. It's all up to you.
 
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