NAS + Firewall + NAS

[Shermanpk]

Hey, I have an old IBM ThinkCenter (one of these). I am looking at turning it into a Firewall / Router / NAS. What would the best Distro to use be, I am currently ruining Puppy Arcade so I have a little Linux under my belt but would prefer to use something with a GUI if possible. I am looking to get a RAID card (a hardware RAID) and a Dual GB Ethernet card as well as an N+ Wifi card; any advice on these would be wonderful.


Parts I am looking to get and would love advice on.
Distribution of Linux
RAID Card
WiFi for Wireless Routing
Ethernet card for Ethernet Routing

(or can I have the Modem / Router offload all the processing for this to the PC and just have it as a connection and not need the last two?)

I have 2 PCI ports and a PCI express port.

 

[danswartz]

No specific advice on wifi from me, but you might want to look at pfsense. It's based on freebsd, and installs on flash or small HD. It has a pretty nice GUI, and (IIRC) supports wifi cards too. I'd recommend intel gig-e in general.

 

[Chimay]

I'm just curious what will you be wirelessly routing? Just curious why'd you get a wireless card rather than just hooking up a good wireless access point to one of the NIC ports.

As far as dual port NICs go everyone seems to say the intel version NICs reign supreme.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106015

 

[cantalup]

on my suggestion:
you can use IPCOP fro firewall+router, or pfsense is a good too...

for thick system , clearOS can be use for firewall+router+NAS, or pick other thick system

 

[danswartz]

If you have decent power, I use astaro security gateway. Very nice product...