Re: [PCTECH] Old PC as internet gateway and file server

["Paul Stagnoli" <stagnolip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Peter!

If you are determined to make it an all in one solution, I would suggest 
Debian.  You can't beat their package management system for maintaining the OS.

IMHO a better, more secure, approach is to use the box to create a firewall 
(including DHCP & DNS) and get another box for the internal server. I'd suggest 
IPCop http://www.ipcop.org for the firewall. The internal server can run 
Debian, Ubuntu, or whatever.

Good Luck,

Paul Stagnoli

*-------------------------------------------------*


Hi group,

My oldest PC has been rotated past the entire family, and was finally 
retired last week.

So now I have at my disposal a 350MHz PII with 320MB Ram, 2 HD's of 
20GB, NIC (and 2 more in the closet) and a DVD reader.

I could of course try to sell the parts online, but I am tempted to 
convert this old thing into a do-it-all server, which would be firewall, 
proxy, internal POP & SMTP, DHCP, DNS and file server.

Currently, my own P4 has 2 NIC's, one to my cable modem and one to the 
internal LAN.  I run 602LanSuite (freeware edition), which incorporates 
the above services.

<finally getting to the heart of the matter>
Does anyone know of a free (linux?) solution that has all this?

I'm specifically looking at an all-in-one solution, considering that my 
linux knowledge is almost zero.

Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,