Wireless Broadband Router / Switch selection

[Ray]

On Fri, Jun 14, 2002 at 09:47:12AM +0800, Stephen Liu wrote:
> Hi Ray,
> 
> Thanks for your response.
> 
> Could you please give me more detail.   Or any pointer shall be appreciated.
> 
> I am now testing a K12 Terminal Server project.

Basically I just start with a used PC, usually 486 or Pentium based thin
desktops but just about anything will do.  I consider a 486dx33, 16M ram,
and 400MB hard drive to be a minimum for an easy setup but you can get away
with less if necessary.  I typically add 1 network card, a pcmcia/isa
adapter, a modem, and a second ethernet card if I need a DMZ.  the modem is
handy for a backup internet connection or to allow remote access in case
there are problems.  For software I use the Debian Linux distro.  I
temporarly attach a CD (or just clone an existing box) and choose a bare
miimum of packages.  I then add dhcp, ssh, mgetty, joe, and anything else
that looks usefull (depending on available disk space, it's easy to over do
it and run out of space).  An alternative to a full Linux distro is one of
the LRP (Linux Router Project) based distros.  They are smaller (many fit on
a single floppy) and there are some commercial versions that add nice gui
config tools.  These should be ok for just a router but if you want a print
server, Squid proxy etc. a normal distro such as Debian is probably a better
choice.  If you go with Debian don't forget to check out the Books secion of
their web site since there is at least one good free Debian book.  You'll
probably be using ipchains or iptables for firewalling and NAT.  There are
several decent config tools for these but I prefer to set them up manually. 
A google search for "iptables sample scripts" should help here.

Some Links:

http://www.debian.org					Debian
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/   Linux & Wireless lan card support
http://www.ltsp.org/index.php				Linux Terminal Server Project
http://www.linuxrouter.org				Linux Router Project

I hope this helps.

-- 
Ray