Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Looking for a small distro for a router
Unregstereduser
09-24-2003, 11:34 PM
OK, so I recently installed RH9 on a friends box, he loves it and is dual booting with WinXP as he is an inveterate gamer and some of his games will not (yet) run under RH. Now, the house also has two other XP boxes, belonging to other people (they are *not* interested in changing).
He also has an older sytem:
Cyrix 333
64m RAM
4g HDD
He wants to use this as a router for his DSL connection. Easy enough, but I need a fairly lean distro to run on it (given the lack of RAM and the older processor). Now, my first thought was to put Slack on it (I use that on my own router), but he has seen mine and is *very* uncomfortable with the admin of it. He needs, I think at this stage, some sort of easy-GUI-style admin tools.
Any suggestions?
stumbles
09-24-2003, 11:45 PM
Originally posted by Unregstereduser
He also has an older sytem:
Cyrix 333
64m RAM
4g HDD
He wants to use this as a router for his DSL connection. Easy enough, but I need a fairly lean distro to run on it (given the lack of RAM and the older processor). Now, my first thought was to put Slack on it (I use that on my own router), but he has seen mine and is *very* uncomfortable with the admin of it. He needs, I think at this stage, some sort of easy-GUI-style admin tools.
Any suggestions?
Smoothwall here (http://www.smoothwall.org) - It should do nicely and has a nifty web interface so the box can run headless and without a keyboard.
Theres also Charles Steinkuehler's floppy based that can fill the bill, here (http://leaf-project.org/devel/cstein/index.html)
It doesn't have a web interface but all maintenance can be done via ssh.
I have used both and work very well.
Obrion
09-25-2003, 12:01 AM
if your going lean try linux coyote. It runs off floppy disks. (Loads into RAM) you can create your router from that easily. Then use ssh and conect it. Uses litte ram and it is fairly secure. Lots of info online to do this as well..
Coyote Linux (http://www.coyotelinux.com)
gfunkmonk
09-25-2003, 12:10 AM
You could try Freesco, I used it for awhile. It can run off a floppy or install onto a harddrive. Plus it has a web based gui.
http://www.freesco.org/
nextbillgates
09-25-2003, 01:30 AM
IPCop is a Smoothwall fork, and it's free (speech, beer).
Get it here (http://www.ipcop.org).
Unregstereduser
09-25-2003, 01:44 AM
Did you say free beer???
I'm there!!!
</end hijack of own thread>
dkeav
09-25-2003, 03:12 AM
if your willing to make a jump in the learning curve the BSD's make great routers, especially if security is an issue
i currently run openBSD as my router, there are great docs to set up the bsd's as routers, freebsd has a lil better docs and may be easier though
Unregstereduser
09-25-2003, 03:20 AM
Now that is something I had not considered - although I ought to have, having recently put openBSD up for someone else - might do just that. His learning curve will be steep, but I am sure he can handle it...we have a winner!!!
funkytaz had a really informative thread yesterday about this, he had done a load of research on which distro's are suitable for routers and the different kind (those that boot from flopy/hd/cd...)
See the thread here http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112743
I have heard good things about BSD as routers though!
Jme.