[clug] Linux firewall

[Duncan Bolt]

Hi,

I was wondering about setting up a firewall type thing at home....

Currently the home network consists, of

One TRANSACT blue and silver box.
One Windows 2000 games and internet computer
One Windows ME games computer.

The Windows 2000 computer has two ethernet cards, one connected to 
TRANSACT, and the other to my aging 10MBit hub.
The Windows ME games computer has an ethernet card also connected to 
the aging 10MBit hub.
I set up the Windows 2000 computer with Internet Connection Sharing 
so the internet works from the Windows ME computer.
However Windows 2000 internet connection wizard is too stupid to cope 
with routing the streamed TV from Transact. I have to disable the 
second ethernet card, and start VLC while not logged in to the 
internet. I can log in afterwards, and the channel that was connected 
works.
So I was wondering about setting up a firewall.

I want one that will log in to transact, share the internet NAT, and 
also share the video stream for TV.
I thought about setting up a smoothwall linux box, but my main worry 
about this space and noise. I am sure that this could be configured 
to do everything.

How easy is it to do this ?
Can it be done without a hardisk ?
eg to boot off a CD or floppy and do everything else with a RAM Disk.

Would I be better off buying a cheap Ethernet firewall box instead ?

-- 

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Duncan Bolt
IT Officer
Research School of Earth Sciences
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia
Email: Duncan.Bolt at anu.edu.au
Phone: + 61 2 6125 3249
Mobile: + 0404014827
Fax: + 61 2 6125 0738
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