I need recommendations on a firewall/router

[Chakachim]

So Ive decided that I need a new router, I want something small but powerful, I want all the latest features, all the bells, all the whistles. I dont necessarily need wireless connectivity. Ive been doing a little ressearch, and I like the idea of hacking a linksys for dd-wrt or even building a monowall router, I think the little unmarked "monowall" box is kinda neat, I personally hate "store bought" looking routers.

SO anyway back ot the question. What do you recommand for a personal firewall. Are there any hackable routers out there that I can hack to get better performance.functionality out of?>

[YeOldeStonecat]

Well, pretty much the latest and highest performing home grade router..currently, is the DLink 655. Their prior high end model is nearing a few years old...the 4300.

The Linksys wrt350n is their higher end model.

If you want the "latest and greatest"...I wouldn't look at the VERY old wrt54gt series that is the popular ones for "flashing" with 3rd party firmware such as DD-WRT, Hyper-WRT..or my fave...Tomato. Yeah those 3rd party firmwares added some performance and features to an otherwise rather bland router...but...it's fallen way behind todays current generation routers with their MUCH faster CPUs and substantially more RAM. However...I recall reading that DD-WRT does now support the wrt300n I think, or 330. Check their site.

Want to tinker with some cool linux distros and build your own *nix router?
For a popular one with many add-ons..check out IPCop. Specifically..look for the add-on module called Copfilter. It adds antivirus and SPAM scanning...at your router.

Another very cool distro, my favorite one, is Endian. It's built on top of IPCop..including the Copfilter add-on..but with a much more polished interface, designed a bit more for the business environment.

These two distros, because of their "transparenty proxy" scanning features...make them stand above the rest of the linux router crowd..such as m0n0wall, Smoothwall, pfsense, etc...they can't do that scanning (last I knew when I tried them)

[Chakachim]

I actually downloaded a copy on Endian, and was looking in to it, but I dont like the idea of having a full sized computer running all the time. I'd love to run endian, but Im working with minimum rack space, and Im trying to be thrifty with the electric bill. Are there any small systems out there that will run Endian, while not drawling a ton of electric

[thedintedcan]

I bought a dell gx100 on ebay for 12 bucks (no hdd, 128mb of ram, 500mhz celeron), it runs ipcop and endia like a champ.

I bumped the ram up a little, and bought a cf - ise adapter so i couldnt use a cf card, thus lwoer noise and power consumption, and the whole thing runs off of a 75 watt psu.

Works great for me.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I actually downloaded a copy on Endian, and was looking in to it, but I dont like the idea of having a full sized computer running all the time. I'd love to run endian, but Im working with minimum rack space, and Im trying to be thrifty with the electric bill. Are there any small systems out there that will run Endian, while not drawling a ton of electric

The ones I build for clients...I use small form factor desktop PCs, usually they have just a 75 watt power supply, a higher P3 or a lower P4, 512 megs, onboard Intel, I'll slap in a 3COM PCI NIC. Not much juice is used.

There's also this thread from 2 days ago....about small router platforms...
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1208996