[BlueOnyx:02216] Re: Router Spec

[Ralf Quint]

At 09:57 AM 8/26/2009, Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet wrote:

>I will suggest something that may be of interest to you, which is to try
>out Smoothwall.   You'll need a PC to run it on.  Doesn't have to be
>much of a PC.   Just needs 2 (or more) NICs on it.   Download the
>Smoothwall Express ISO from http://www.smoothwall.org/ and then load it
>up on an old PC.   It's pretty easy to install and configure.
>
>The web-based interface on it is fairly robust.  It won't cost you
>anything to try it, assuming you've got an old computer laying around
>someplace.
>
>We use Smoothwall on a P3-500 with 256MB RAM and a 20GB HDD for our LAN.
>     (NOT the datacenter - we run Cicso GSR12012 and GSR12008 for that!)
>   The Smoothwall has been rock-solid stable and we can get throughput of
>about 60Mbps on it (it's upstream connection is a 100Mbps FastE from on
>of our our 6509's).   Depending on the time of day, we usually have
>around 10 users on it fairly constantly.   We serve our billing system
>and our security video system through it.
>
>I also know of a couple customers in the datacenter that use this sort
>of configuration for their hosting environments.  It seems to work
>pretty well for them.
I can only second that! <LOL>

I am using the GPL/Open Source version of Smoothwall since the first 
couple of weeks the first version was released back in August 2000 
and I am by now part of the development/test/support team.

Right now, there are slight issues with brand spanking new hardware 
(motherboard chipsets, certain Gigabit NICs), as we are based on a 
somewhat older 2.6.x kernel, but there are a lot of things in the 
works right now, for a lot of changes. Any slightly older box, 
anything above a PII/300 with 256MB RAM and a 6.4GB HD, will do just 
fine, only if you try to get more fancy with content/spam/virus 
filtering and/or multiple VPN tunnels, you need a bit more beefier system...

Also, take a look at http://community.smoothwall.org , it's a very 
active forum where you can easily can get help in case you have some 
troubles...

Ralf