On Tue, 26 Jul 2005, David Collins wrote:
> Regarding using a computer solely as a firewall and
> for network address translation, you could get one
> very cheaply from electronicrecycling.ie or maybe one
> of the freecycle groups (
>http://www.freecycle.org/display.php?region=International#Ireland> ) - there's a lot of PCs being offered on the Leinster
> group. Seeing as you wouldn't even need a monitor,
> keyboard or mouse (..at least after the installation -
> just ssh into the box) I think (though I could be
> wrong - I'm not familiar with the prices) that it
> would work out almost as cheap as buying a router.
If you do not intend to turn off your router then you should also look at
power consumption as you may be paying more for the electricity than for
the devide. Linksys WRT54GS consumes 4-6 watts. A portable PC around 10-50
watts. A desktop PC around 50-100 watts.
> Plus, at least with using a Linux-based gateway, if you decide to add a
> (lightweight) web or mail server to your setup somewhere down the line,
> you can use your gateway computer for this also
You can do this on Linksys WRT54GS. I have heard of people using another
model (than the Linksys) that had USB-port, so mass storage was no
problem.
/Ole
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