Turning computer into router...which route should i go (no pun intended)

M

mrand01

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 22, 2002
Messages
341
Aright, first off...I tried pfSense, and it's a bit complicated (I could figure it out probably, but whatever)...heres the machine's specs:

2x Xeon 2.4ghz
2gb RDRAM (god damn rambus)
2x 80gb SCSI drives 10k rpm
4x Linksys Gigabit NICs

So, I could stick w/ pfSense, try IPCOP or Untangle or ClarkConnect...or I could go the windows route and do SBS or ISA Server. I have valid legal licenses for both the MS products, so its not a terrible option. I'm not a Linux freak, in fact, I'm more comfortable w/ Windows. Just wanna know what the best option is. The config I want is:

NIC 1 - WAN
NIC 2 - LAN
NIC 3 - DMZ
NIC 4 - To WIFI access point
 
I run Pfsense as my home firewall (A dual 550 PIII).

It's not bad for what it is but, to me the features almost seem lacking.
Smoothwall seems to give more options but, I've had problems with it.

As for utangle or clarkconnect, someone will have to chime in.

I ran IPcop at school on a project and it's not bad but, you CANNOT add custom rules without a good knowledge of linux (its a BSD derivative I think).
 
most of all i want something that is relatively easy to use. I have experience setting up Ciscos (barely), but I don't want anything close to that complicated
 
I run Endian 2.2 at both homes, on 300 and 350Mz PII/IIIs. Runs well and does it's job. As far as I know, there isn't much in terms of QOS if you're looking for that. Only problem I have is I can't run Snort on the one box because it gobbles up the small amount of RAM i have in it right now.
 
If you want really simple and feature complete go download and install the 30 day eval for Astaro. If you like it you can buy it. If you don't want to pay for something then go download Untangle or Endian and give those a shot. Both are great products and work really well, not too difficult to get setup and manage. Personally, I like Astaro more but you have to pay for it unless its for home use and you don't mind the 10-user limit. :)
 
I would look at untangle if you're running it on that kind of hardware. Its way overkill of pfSense, and the proxy addon packages for it arent stable yet.

 
Untagle would be nice on that hardware, i just feel sorry for whoever pays the bill if this is for home usage :eek:
 
I run Smoothwall Express 3.0 with several custom mods from the homebrew section over at their forums ..very customizable and a great community to boot to help you get things figured out or even help you roll your own mod to suite your needs


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Most of these Unix based router distributions have roughly the same setup.

If you really want to use one of these I'd say pick one that looks good to you and really learn it. After all, it'll be your firewall/router so knowing the ins and outs of it is almost a must.

But I'm using IPCop and it works great. It's an easy setup (for me anyways) and configuring the options is also easy to do.
 
To help select a distro or package....first...answer "What is it you need it to do?"

Is this for home? Or is this for a workplace network?

What features do you need?

I've dabbled with all at the home front...most of the *nix distros, including the UTM distros, and even run Windows Server RRAS, and ISA. What I've always gone back to for home use..is keeping it simple. I'm back on an old IBM Thinkpad midrange P3 running PFSense..because I desire the packet shaping/QoS features PFSense provides me for Vonage phone, and online gaming not being affected by the other users.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
To help select a distro or package....first...answer "What is it you need it to do?"

Is this for home? Or is this for a workplace network?

What features do you need?
Click to expand...

I agree with YeOldeStonecat .. and maybe check out the communities associated with the distro that offers the features you want/need so you know you'll have the support you need ..should you need it :)



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Went w/ Untangle, and man, it's pretty cool. Just having a few issues w/ rules right now, but i can probably get it sorted out. It just seems like my torrents aren't as "stable" as they used to be...seems to drop out sometimes. I can't find whats being blocked, if anything, but I'll probably figure it out. thx for the help guys
 
May want to try turning off some of the rack components..like attack blocker and intrusion defender. Also check out their forums...and ask over there.
 
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