[clug] Installfest / Install-off

[Hal Ashburner]

Alex Satrapa wrote:
> One little idea that occurred to me after Installfest was to have a 
> scenario-based "install-off" where we pose a scenario and get teams 
> (or just "the mob") to set up a Linux environment to support the 
> scenario.
>
> For example, a plain vanilla install-off could be to set up a SOHO 
> infrastructure consisting of:
>  - DHCP
>  - LDAP
>  - Web proxy
>  - firewall / router
>  - Samba
>  - CUPS
>  - (backup software such as Backula)
>  - Intranet server (eg: Apache web server, some kind of Wiki)
>  - Mail server (SMTP, IMAP) with virus scanning
>  - DNS set up as securely as possible
>  - Monitoring software such as Nagios 
+ Some kind of vpn for remote access from windows, osx (or even linux) 
installed laptops.

ASUS WL600G ADSL2+ Modem & wireless router
+ usb disk
+ customised firmware to do the above.
Using new hardware c. $250 ($100 for the modem/router + $150 for the 
disk & enclosure? A terror bite costs < $300 now, insane.)
The customised & configured firmware would be the trick, debian is 
probably the best bet. If it could be made point & click simple to set 
up that should be pretty sale-able as a product & after sale service 
opportunity while being better than the stuff on offer as well as less 
expensive. Go the Free software!
http://wl500g.info/

Without customised firmware you get no LDAP, Samba, backup, intranet, 
mailserver or monitoring. These are all just pacakges to install and 
configure. The thing requires binary drivers for the wireless chipset 
which is a pain, having said that compiling your own firmware is less 
painful than you might imagine, and of course if person A does it they 
can make it available to all...

Good, simple, and importantly to some, very low power draw solution to a 
Home or small office server, router & modem.