building a Linux router question

[AlwaysUp]

I have read that you can procure an old model PC and configure it as a Linux router. Is this true and if so where would someone learn about how to do this. And oh yeah, can a Linux router work in a Windows environment?

[corosus]

i have a linux router running ( althou i did not set it up a buddy did that for me)
it runs on debian with a 233mhz processor and 64 mb ram
beyond that it has 2 500 mb hard drives 2 nic's and a old pci videocard, just to get the mobo to work,
it woks great with windows machines,
i even have samba running on it so i can share the free space on the hd's.
in short: yes it works but i do not know where you can learn how to do this, sorry

[mairving]

You might read up here about making a Linux router out of an old 486 without a hard drive, running off the floppy only.

[Computer Hobbyist]

This is the Linux NHF for routing. It should have everything you need to get started. There are other single disk routers such as one called BBIagent. You might want to learn basic Linux routing before you try the single floppy versions.

CH

[Xayd]

Take a look at Coyote and Freesco.

http://www.coyotelinux.com
http://www.freesco.org

It just runs on a floppy, no need for a hard drive or anything else.

You can administer it via telnet, no need for a monitor or keyboard either .

1) make sure your nics are supported, and you'll probably need the utility from the NIC's manufacturer to turn plug and play off on them

2) If you're using it with no keyboard/monitor don't forget to turn "Halt on errors" off in the old machine's BIOS so it'll boot without a keyboard.

Coyote might be good to start with, it has a very simple setup program (that runs in Windows) that will generate a configuration for you so to get up and running all you need to do is run that and reboot your old machine with the floppy in the drive.

[Blakhart]

Also the latest issue of linux format has arts on fwalls/routers. You might look for the non corporate edition of smoothwall. Without configuration, it allows any outbound, but denies any external request.