Linux as Router/Firewall

[nju0843]

Hello Everyone!,
I am new here, and to linux. I am sure you all will help me make my experience with Linux enjoyable!
Well I just upgraded several parts on my computer and will soon have enough left over parts to make a decent second computer. I currently use Windows XP Pro and my wife's laptop has the same. I would like to use Mandrake 10 or Fedora on my new computer to use it as a router/firewall. Is software to accomplish this task readily available with both of the linux distributions i mentioned? Could anyone give me some hints, ideas, or URLs that specifically address this issue?

Thanks,
Nick

[kkubasik]

Both will do as you need very nicely and as you are new to linux,both distros would be great choices. I would personaly recommend Mandrake, becasue my personal experiance with them has been very good, and far faster that that with fedora. Another distro to look at might be clark connect, a distribution specificaly tailored to routing and firewall/gateway services, but im not sure the level of experiance it requires. While you are deciding on a distro, http://www.distrowatch.com will be handy. If you have questions feel free to keep adding post, this is a very active community.

[Darl]

If the machine is acting exclusively as a router/firewall you might want to take a look at IPCop

[sarumont]

If the machine is acting exclusively as a router/firewall you might want to take a look at IPCop

Or Smoothwall

[nju0843]

what hardware would I need to accomplish this?

Just two PCI Ethernet Cards?

What programs are used with Mandrake or Fedora to accomplish this?

By the way, I am pretty set on using one of these two distros.
I want to use it for more than just its firewall/router capabilities.

Thanks,
Nick

[sarumont]

what hardware would I need to accomplish this?

Just two PCI Ethernet Cards?

What programs are used with Mandrake or Fedora to accomplish this?

By the way, I am pretty set on using one of these two distros.
I want to use it for more than just its firewall/router capabilities.

Thanks,
Nick

You would need two ethernet cards in the routing box and a switch behind the Linux box to allow for multiple connections. As far as programs, all you need is iptables (kernel modules). You can use a gui frontend to config it, but I'm not sure what is available as far as that is concerned.

[Giro]

Agree IPCop is great for a standalone router/firewall its all configured from your browser and takes about 15 mins to install. I like version 1.5.0 although its a beta the UI is much better.

[tylerwylie]

I'm going to be configuring something like this too, but I am not yet to understand the advantages of having a router box over a router, I have the ethernet cards, and the cables, and since i will only have one computer behind the router at first, i wont need the switch yet, but i just want to know what the advantages of a computer acting as a router over a router itself. I would run gentoo on it because ... well we all know gentoo is the best .

[Giro]

There functionaly the same just with a hw router you are stuck with what you have got but with a linux software router you can customize things and such.

[GoldenEye]

Hi necrocyde,

How do you say that Gentoo is the best if don't understand the advantages of a Linux router/ip based firewall!?

... little strange, don't you think!?

With common routers the configuration capability will stay at beginner level and most of those routers use all_or_nothing rules to allow/block ip packets.

With a Linux router you can set up ip-based rules to control your incoming and outgoing network activity and many more...