[ale] About that firewall machine [Was]Re: [ale] unidentified processes

[Thompson Freeman]

Well, I'm familiar with at least one of the broadband routers, and if it
wasn't this late I could remember which of them I set my daughter up
with. 8-/. And the '486 idea certainly has cost benefits. My goal here,
however, is more aligned with having open source control with minimal or
near minimal power consumption. I'm not certain to go down this route, but
I find it very interesting (especially when I look at the nest of power
cables crawling around behind the desk, and under some of the other
furniture around here. I haven't tripped the circuit breakers yet, but
I've got to be grazing the edge around here.)

On Tue, 18 Dec 2001, Geoffrey wrote:

> Thompson Freeman wrote:
> > 
> > I'm curious about what sort of firewall machine can be gotten these
> > days. Obviously, an intel type proc with either a CDROM or other mass
> > storage is available, but for one off projects are there any
> > others? Massive compute horsepower isn't especially needed, so can
> > something be assembled which draws perhaps 1-5 watts, carries at least two
> > ethernet interfaces, and runs headless?
> 
> I've been looking into this lately.  There's really a ton of devices
> that prety much meet these requirements.  They usually call them
> dsl/broadband routers and they sit on the end of your dsl/broadband
> device.  Actually, most will sit at the end of any ethernet connection.
> 
> I'll have two of them in place, hopefully by the end of the week.  One
> is a combination router/dsl modem.  It does NAT and firewall stuff,
> although I'll not be using any of it.
> 
> I'm also getting a device called Netgate which is a little larger then
> my USR external modem.  It has 4 ethernet ports.  It is actually running
> Linux and is being used by my employer to facilitate vpn connectivity to
> the corporate network.  So, it does vpn, firewall, nat and I think it
> can juggle.  I should be getting it tomorrow, so if anyones interested,
> I can provide some more specific specs.
> 
> The reason I'm getting both devices is because when the Netgate fires up
> the vpn, everything behind it is routed to the vpn and can not access
> the internet. Since I've got some machines I want to have on the
> internet all the time, I'll be putting the netgate behind the
> dsl/router.  I'll have two static IPs one for the netgate device,
> another for what will virtually be my 'other' network.
> 
> Going to be a lot of fun.
> 
> Again, anyone else want anymore info one these things, let me know and
> I'll share what I have once I get these things in my grubby little
> hands.
> 
> Also, go to http://www.pricewatch.com and check out the networking
> router devices they list there.  Four < $100 they list a host of devices
> that will do the routing, nat, firewall stuff.  I have no idea how good
> they are, but there's a bunch of them out there.
> 
> 
> --
> Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net
> 
> "...the system (Microsoft passport) carries significant risks to users
> that
> are not made adequately clear in the technical documentation available."
> - David P. Kormann and Aviel D. Rubin, AT&T Labs - Research
> - http://www.avirubin.com/passport.html
> 
> ---
> This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
> See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
> sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
> 
> 

-- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iacocca
===========================================
Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net


---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.