Build for a firewall

[dark_phantom36]

Ok. I'm wanting to put together a dedicated router/firewall box. I'm also planning on using one of the 'nix based dedicated firewall/router distributions.

Requirements:
Small - Probably something on an mATX board or some form of embedded solution (not familiar with those at all)
Inexpensive - Definitely less than 100 dollars

The problem:
If I go the PC route, I don't have a case for it yet, which will take up most of the budget.

Any suggestions?

If it isn't possible to fit the budget with a decent case, I can get a dinky mid tower from somewhere(my room) for free or another to use until I spot something small that I like at a later time.

For other hardware, I was thinking of a low end athlonxp or an athlonxp mobile with an mATX board, integrated video and 512mb of RAM.
Couldn't this be run without any hard disk if I used a USB drive? If so, would I need more RAM (since I wouldn't have any swap space because my spare USB drive is 512mb)?

Also, this would probably have at most 5 computers going through it for 99% of the time. Every once in a while, that could hit 10 for a LAN.

Thanks in advance!

 

[COKE CAN]

You can get 1u servers on EBAY for $100-150 shipped. 30GB HDD, 256MB, 750MHz-1GHz, etc. You may want to check that out.

I believe you can also get IDE to CF (compact flash) adapters, but I am unsure if you can use a thumb drive.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I built a couple using some leftover Compaq SFF cases. "SFF" are Compaq/HPs Small Form Factor desktop PCs.

An older one was a Deskpro EN 733. The current one I have in my office at home is a Compaq EVO 510...a P4 w/512 megs.

Looking on fleabay, you can pick them up for under 40 bucks per.

Onboard Intel 10/100...the several *nix distros I tried detected it fine. Slap a 3COM 095 in the PCI riser board..all set.
http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

 

[dark_phantom36]

You can get 1u servers on EBAY for $100-150 shipped. 30GB HDD, 256MB, 750MHz-1GHz, etc. You may want to check that out.

I believe you can also get IDE to CF (compact flash) adapters, but I am unsure if you can use a thumb drive.

I know that you can boot Damn Small Linux off of a usb drive, so that's why I wasn't sure. I really haven't messed with that, but I was thinking that if a motherboard were able to boot from USB that there should be some way to do it, maybe even without using one of the dedicated firewall/router distros.

As far as case size goes, it doesn't have to be too terribly small. I think I'd be happy with even a 2U server. I'll have to sit back and watch ebay for a week or something to get the feel for prices, but I'll keep those in mind.

 

[COKE CAN]

I know that you can boot Damn Small Linux off of a usb drive, so that's why I wasn't sure. I really haven't messed with that, but I was thinking that if a motherboard were able to boot from USB that there should be some way to do it, maybe even without using one of the dedicated firewall/router distros.

As far as case size goes, it doesn't have to be too terribly small. I think I'd be happy with even a 2U server. I'll have to sit back and watch ebay for a week or something to get the feel for prices, but I'll keep those in mind.

Now that I moved into my own place, I used my spare bedroom as a computer/guest room. I have one desktop in there with my firewall in the closet. My laptop stays out in the dining area.

 

[bob]

the WRAP boards are nice if you want to run something small like monowall, but anything more isnt going to happen. Something like the fanless mini-itx boards, 90* PCI riser and a dual-port intel pro card... That and a 12-12v DC atx power supply, and a 12v wall-wort.

Though the mini-itx stuff costs a hell of a lot of money for what your getting (1990s era horsepower).