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    wanting to use a computer as a firewall/router

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by hyelton, Aug 20, 2011.

  1. hyelton

    hyelton Notebook Consultant

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    I have a computer I'm wanting to dedicate yo this. It has about a gig of ram decent older processor. But I want to use it as my router. Where it can can maybe a way Ivan have a web interface for it that would show dhcp clients and maybe bandwidth mointering. But something not to hard to setup. Sorry for the errors lol. I'm using my cell phone
     
    hyelton, Aug 20, 2011
    #1
  2. freesafety13

    freesafety13 Notebook Enthusiast

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    This article is for you.
     
    freesafety13, Aug 21, 2011
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  3. Sxooter

    Sxooter Notebook Virtuoso

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    You can also try installing dd-wrt on a PC, but I've heard it's buggy on x86 machines.
     
    Sxooter, Aug 21, 2011
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  4. chimpanzee

    chimpanzee Notebook Virtuoso

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    I would not recommend it. Not sure where you are but the power consumption of a PC can easily cost you the price of a dedicated router in a few months time.

    A 150N router can be in the range of 20 bucks. A standard PC @ 100W would use 2.4KWh a day.
     
    chimpanzee, Aug 22, 2011
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  5. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    There are about three-bazillion firewall/router/email small business server linux distros out there in addition to Microsoft SBS.

    Many/most of the linux distros have an option to boot and run from either a cd-rom that you build or from a flash drive. No hard drive needed. Some of the specialist flash drives can be mounted straight on the mobo in the ide or sata ports.

    Plenty of readmes and how-tos as well.

    If you want to run this machine as a router and a switch, you'll probably spend more $$ buying a handful of multiport ethernet cards than you will on anything else in this server.

    I can usually find Intel Pro/1000 quad cards for around $100- each on ebay. If you want 4 port 100 meg cards those can be found as cheap as $20- used. In either case I'd stick with Intel cards only; they are stable as heck and very very well supported in the linux distro world.
     
    newsposter, Aug 22, 2011
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  6. hyelton

    hyelton Notebook Consultant

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    Well I just want to use iit as a router. But I also what a web interface 192.168.1.xxx where I can easily change things I used something and got it working BUT it would NOT gather the IP address from the modem no matter how many times I reset it. Il have it run out to a Gigibit Switch
     
    hyelton, Aug 22, 2011
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