networking with a router?

[mart_man00]

im trying to start up a (mostly) linux only network. im thinking of having one machine act as a firewall and a binch of others connect to it by a cheap router. can i control which computer can connect to which computer?

witha something like a cisco router it would be easy, since its a real router but what about the home networking ones you find every where?

idealy only the firewall machine will runa firwall. can it be done? im not even sure what to call the fake home routers. or is there a knock off of a cisco that is cheap(it would be kooler and i would like it if its not that much).

thanks

[homey]

Linux makes for a good router system. You could setup the router and firewall in one swipe with freesco floppy router.....http://www.freesco.org
Then connect the other computers to a switch.

[mart_man00]

im looking at some gigabyte switches now at tigerdirect, they cost alot! any other ideas? ill still look for a good price, i always start there first.

i could string the cheap ones together thanks

[homey]

I have not actually bought from them but some folks like newegg.com

Do you have gigabyte nics which are linux friendly? Another thing to consider is the cable modem speed. Mine is only 10MB and I have been too lazy to check the options there. :)

[mart_man00]

i know my internet connection will never even be 1mb/sec(its like 600KB/sec) but i want to throw in a data sever, so with big files a gigabye would be nice.

as for linux friendly, i think mine shows up as 100. ill check to see if dell really did give me a gigabyte! it does function under 100.