Router/Firewall Recommendation

[Jeff]

On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 22:51:43 -0400, Alejandro Calbazana wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> I was looking for some recommendations on using a standalone RH
> machine as a firewall.  Right now, I have an older Linksys router
> which I use as a standalone router for my broadband connection.  I
> was considering placing a firewall behind my router.  Other than
> being overly paranoid, I'd like to do this b/c i like the logging
> capability of iptables and iptables has much more flexibility as
> far as rules go.  The Linksys router simply routes, forwards, and
> does rudimentary logging.  My questions are:
>
> 1. Is the overkill from a home network?
> 2. Should I just use my linux box as a router AND a firewall and
> ditch the Linksys appliance all together?
> 3. If there is room for both, how might the router allow traffic to
> flow to the machine I designate as my firewall?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Alejandro


I found myself in a similar situation a few months ago, after waying up all the pro's and con's I sold my router on ebay and bought a PCI DSL card (and made money ;p). Obviously, this becomes a little more awkward if you're on cable/leased line - Im not sure what other hardware is available for these or if its supported under Linux.

To replace the router I have an old P-II 350 with 256MB RAM and it works great - I have shorewall installed to protect my LAN, a mail server (w/spamassassin), a web server etc. 

Depending on what you want the linux box to do then it might be worthwhile looking at some of the firewall distro's such as smoothwall, IPcop, etc

HTH
Jeff