[clug] Asterix at home

[Mike Carden]

I'm reminded of the years I spent running a custom Linux firewall box
for my home network. I tended it carefully and assiduously applied
updates, read its logs and basked in my time-consuming but powerfully
protected home network.

Then I bought a teeny tiny linux based router that ran off the smell
of an oily rag.

To feel more geeky I immediately gave it community firmware and
tweaked it to within an inch of... doing what it did already.

And I still had a secure home network.

Now I have a Wireless router / ADSL2 / VOIP device that doesn't care
what OS talks to it and gives me seamless VOIP at the same time as
doing all of the wired and unwired local data provisioning that I
need.

By all means hack 100 watts of old PC into being a VOIP gateway, but
it's no longer the province of hackers. Your corner store can sell you
a smaller, cheaper, working version for less than the cost of the
power to run an old PC[0].


 --
MC

[0] Some statistics may be completely imaginary.