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#1 2008-10-08 22:32:43

mvdvarrier
Member
Registered: 2008-10-04
Posts: 47

Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

Dear Friends,
I have an old obsolete PC  running Pentium 160MHz with 16MB RAM & 2GB HDD. I used it as a router/firewall/proxy server using floppy based distro coyote in the dial up days. Now I have adsl connection and coyote can't manage adsl connections. More over coyote is now dead. Can any version of Arch Linux do that task with such a low hardware? I want to implement a proxy server with this machine! Suggestions are humbly invited. Thanks
mvdvarrier


mvdvarrier is a Warrior; Born to Expedite!!!

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#2 2008-10-08 23:20:51

sim4lin
Member
Registered: 2008-03-09
Posts: 32

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

Hello,

Not Arch, but have you looked at floppyfw?

http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/


ASRock N68C-GS FX motherboard
AMD X2 240 @ 2.8G
Nvidia 9500GT @ 1G
Kingston 800Mhz DDR2 @ 4G

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#3 2008-10-09 01:08:38

KurtKraut
Member
Registered: 2008-03-05
Posts: 17

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

Are you sure coyote is fully unable to authenticate you in your adsl ?! Coyote is a brazilian linux distribution, as far as I remember. In Brazil, ADSL has more users than dial up.

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#4 2008-10-09 15:11:27

xvalentinex
Member
Registered: 2008-05-31
Posts: 22

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

I use pfsense on an antiquated PC, it works great.  There are numerous router distro's out there, but I think running a proxy server may push you over the limits of what that box can do.  Your already looking pretty slim for any sort of broadband connection.

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#5 2008-10-09 22:06:03

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
Website

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

I'm running 'Endian' on a PII-300... 16mb is *really* low for *anything* though - I agree with xvalentinex about not being able to run a proxy server. If you can upgrade the RAM, then you should be fine. I run a proxy on mine with 320mb RAM.

EDIT: Endian can be found here http://www.endian.com/en/community/overview/

Last edited by fukawi2 (2008-10-09 22:07:15)

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#6 2008-10-09 22:24:06

scrllock
Member
From: Michigan, USA
Registered: 2008-06-04
Posts: 19

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

Another vote for pfSense here. m0n0wall and shorewall are also good, but you really should get more memory if at all possible, and maybe get at least a 5-10GB drive (especially if you want to proxy).

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#7 2008-10-10 02:27:35

mvdvarrier
Member
Registered: 2008-10-04
Posts: 47

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

xvalentinex wrote:

I use pfsense on an antiquated PC, it works great.  There are numerous router distro's out there, but I think running a proxy server may push you over the limits of what that box can do.  Your already looking pretty slim for any sort of broadband connection.

Thanks xvalentinex,
I googled for pfsense but according to the official website the minimum memory requirement is 128MB. http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option … &Itemid=48
In earlier days I installed older versions of slackware linux ver (9.x) in the same pc without GUI.   I am going to try this way and instead of squid i will try masquerading with ipchain. Any Suggestions please?
mvdvarrier


mvdvarrier is a Warrior; Born to Expedite!!!

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#8 2008-12-01 10:39:53

handy
Member
From: Oz
Registered: 2008-03-26
Posts: 719

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

IPCop is incredibly small & lite, & would work fine on 64Mb though 128 would allow you to be able to use the squid caching web proxy more effectively.

http://www.ipcop.org/

An overview of a very early version after the split from Smoothwall:

http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1556

Add-ons for IPCop:

http://www.advproxy.net/

[Edit:]  Actually I have just found the following in the IPCop documentation:

Use of older equipment. 386 or better. Version 1.4 has been tested on 486sx25 with 12M of RAM and 273M of hard drive. This was the oldest and smallest we could find at the time of test. It was loaded via the Net Install option and supported a full Cable Modem download speed of 3Mb/s.

Last edited by handy (2008-12-02 07:12:14)


I used to be surprised that I was still surprised by my own stupidity, finding it strangely refreshing.
Well, now I don't find it refreshing.
I'm over it!

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#9 2008-12-01 10:48:24

Dieter@be
Forum Fellow
From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-11-05
Posts: 2,000
Website

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

+1 for m0n0wall. Haven't tried pfSense yet, but probably also deserves a +1 since it's based on m0n0 and the project exists already several years.


< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
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#10 2008-12-01 21:41:34

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
Website

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

I'd like to resind my Endian suggestion. After running happily for nearly 12 months, it did something funky and stuffed my whole intarwebs. See this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=59798

I've moved to pfSense and am very happy with it (even if it is BSD and not Linux tongue)

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#11 2008-12-11 07:39:07

handy
Member
From: Oz
Registered: 2008-03-26
Posts: 719

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

A couple of the old $5- boxes I have got from the tip, are hardware incompatible with Linux it would seem.  I get kernel panic when trying to install Arch or the last 2 versions of Ubuntu Server.

Anyway the boxes are well worth the $5- in useful components. :-)


I used to be surprised that I was still surprised by my own stupidity, finding it strangely refreshing.
Well, now I don't find it refreshing.
I'm over it!

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#12 2008-12-11 18:58:52

scrawler
Member
Registered: 2005-06-07
Posts: 318

Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server

ipcop :-)

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#13 2008-12-11 19:35:12

Mr Green
Forum Fellow
From: U.K.
Registered: 2003-12-21
Posts: 5,893
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Re: Turning an obsolete PC to router/firewall/proxy server


Mr Green

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