[clug] Home Firewall dedicated OS

[Ian McLeod]

Seems a better solution to set up home VPN is to bridge the modem to a 
dedicated OS..  Is this a *viable* option in terms of investment in time 
and maintenance required for the average small home network?  And secure 
enough compared to a hardware firewall and NAT (modem)?

Seems there is SmoothWall and ClarkConnect free editions and something 
called Devil Linux..

Any experience with these things?  Not concerned with philosophical 
implications of a commercial company vs puritan GPL or whatever, just 
something that is free and works well and is relatively easy to set up.