Linux Based Router

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Posted by mperkel, 11-17-2008, 02:19 PM
Linux Based Router I'm thinking about adding a linux based router to my cabinet. I have 8 computers so I'm not looking for anything that's tricky. In fact some of this is just for my own education as to what routers can do. The biggest feature that's important to me is ease of use. I want something that I can configure from a web based menu. So what linux based router software is the easiest to use and most educational? Also - I dealing with about 30mb 95th percentile traffic. Peak is 100mb. Would a box that has and AMD dual core CPU with 8 gigs of ram be a good enough computer to run on? Thanks in advance for your recommendations. __________________ Marc Perkel /root http://www.junkemailfilter.com marc@perkel.com
Posted by zaitcev, 11-17-2008, 04:00 PM
First of all, you don't need gigabytes for a non-core router (e.g if you don't run BGP on it). A 128 MB box would be plenty do defuse any SYN flood. What you do need though is a set of two good NICs. Personally I like Intel these days. It's nothing super-fancy, but works well. There's a bunch of good Broadcom stuff too, but there's a bunch of bad one as well, and I'm not up to speed as to which is which. Avoid Realtek like plague. The usual onboard stuff like VIA Rhine and nVidia you better just disable too. About the web based menu I cannot suggest anything, sorry. I just use ip(8) and iptables(8) for everything. -- Pete
Posted by mperkel, 11-17-2008, 04:12 PM
I'm looking for something web based and easy. Easy is the most important feature. __________________ Marc Perkel /root http://www.junkemailfilter.com marc@perkel.com
Posted by Krishopper, 11-17-2008, 06:12 PM
Check out Vyatta. It compares to Cisco routing. Their documentation gives good examples on setup. I believe the new(er) version has a Web GUI as well. __________________Cybernetik.net - Offering CHEAP hosting and UNLIMITED hosting. We do NOT oversell!Also offering: Zimbra Email Hosting. VPS hosting. Reseller hosting. Professional consulting services.
Posted by coloheart, 11-17-2008, 09:09 PM
128 ram with good nics should be enough. But now-a-days as you so many powerful machines ..there's nothing wrong in getting a more advanced one. For the NICs I personally like 3com.
Posted by boonchuan, 11-18-2008, 08:31 AM
You may want to take a look at http://www.mikrotik.com/, checking on them at the moment, looks impressive. __________________Singapore Web HostingSingapore
Posted by WeWatch, 11-18-2008, 08:38 AM
Marc Perkel from the SpamAssassin group? Have you looked at http://www.openlinuxrouter.com ? They have: Cross-platform web interface, VLAN support, ACLs, Stateful packet filtering, NAT/PAT, etc. I've used them and it's quite feature rich, yet relatively easy to use. __________________ Thomas J. Raef WeWatchYourWebsite - so you don't have to!Report: How Cybercriminals Use Your Website to Deliver Their Malware
Posted by albunix, 11-18-2008, 02:33 PM
Back in the days when it was version 4 or so, I've used Astaro and have gotten a pretty intricate setup. __________________Erald T -- Client Service EngineerNavisite Dedicated Hostinghttp://dedicatedhosting.navisite.com24/7/365" Myth or Reality
Posted by WeWatch, 11-18-2008, 02:43 PM
I have used Untangle.com before as well and found it full of features. I'm not crazy about their security features as I found them too light. As you add more of their security, their system really slows down. __________________ Thomas J. Raef WeWatchYourWebsite - so you don't have to!Report: How Cybercriminals Use Your Website to Deliver Their Malware
Posted by mperkel, 11-18-2008, 03:27 PM
What about smoothwall? Is it any good? __________________ Marc Perkel /root http://www.junkemailfilter.com marc@perkel.com
Posted by WeWatch, 11-18-2008, 03:34 PM
Smoothwall is good as well. Especially for routing. I'm not sure it's the greatest firewall type system, but you stated you're looking for routing functionality so I think it might be a good solution for you as well. __________________ Thomas J. Raef WeWatchYourWebsite - so you don't have to!Report: How Cybercriminals Use Your Website to Deliver Their Malware
Posted by mperkel, 11-19-2008, 12:52 PM
I'm not impressed with smoothwall. I'd rather have something that I can just download some RPMs and install it on a stock modern kernel. __________________ Marc Perkel /root http://www.junkemailfilter.com marc@perkel.com
Posted by Nizumzen, 11-19-2008, 12:55 PM
OpenBSD and PF is going to be the best firewall / router combination you will find outside of a hardware router.

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