On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 9:26 PM, Greg Madden
<gomadtroll@gci.net> wrote:
On Sunday 20 February 2011 03:03:35 pm Nate Bargmann wrote:
> * On 2011 20 Feb 14:22 -0600, Elmer E. Dow wrote:
> > Greetings:
> >
> > I'd like to set up a network with a firewall for my home computers
> > for security, control and convenience (file sharing), as well as to
> > learn about networking. We have the Internet entering via a Motorola
> > DSL modem and it currently passes data through a NetGear wireless
> > router. I'd like to construct my own firewall/router to connect our
> > three active machines and also use the NetGear for wireless access
> > when needed.
>
> Reusing old hardware is fine. Be sure that you're not going to spend as
> much or more getting the hardware into an old computer as you might with
> a router capable of running OpenWRT or similar. Last year I bought an
> Asus WL-500 GP from New Egg for about $60. Granted, one must read specs
> carefully if more memory/hardware capability is required. Not to be
> overlooked are the space and energy requirements of an old desktop
> versus a modern router capable of running an embedded Linux
> distribution.
>
+1
ditch the old computer , todays routers with dd-wrt or openwrt are more reliable
and cheaper to run. Buffalo routers come with dd-wrt pre-installed.
Your netgear router may be supported by dd-wrt, some are. If it has wired ports
along with the wireless it could be fine.
really? i'd be truly interested if you can show me a peace of hardware that can do what vyatta can do on old pc hardware. in fact, i'll give you a $500 finders fee if you can find me hardware that does what vyatta can do for under $500.... hell, if you can find anything for under $2k, i'll be impressed - i think the asa 5525 has the ids capabilities for ~2500 or something like that which is the closest and cheapest i think you'll find.
that said, i still use a fon for a wifi bridge to my network which runs wrt (err, sorta) and i highly recommend these devices for everything wifi (even business networks - no poe though).