[CLUE-Tech] LinkSys vs. spare PC

[Nicholas Perez]

If you read up on IPtables and go with 2.4.x kernel it can do just as much
as that linksys if not more. But doing is not the issue. The real issue with
store cheap routers vs. home grown linux-based pc routers is the time to
cost ratio. How much time are you willing to spend to tweak your firewall in
the linux box, and or how much are you willing to spend on a store router to
avoid the hassle of setting up your own. I personally run a 486 laptop with
two pcmcia nics as a router and it works flawlessly. And writing my own
firewall only took about 15-20 lines in a BASH script. I do stateful
matching and specific packet blocking (Lone flags set in the tcp flags such
as SYN FIN ALLon and ALLoff) not to mention i do IP masquerading flawlessly
and prerouting the packet with a mangle and TOS(Type of Service) flags set
right can actually improve performance when routing specific traffic through
your machine. It just depends on how knowledgeable of networking you want to
be.

On Fri, 13 Apr 2001 18:27:33 -0600,  Roger Frank wrote:

>  At MicroCenter they sell a box for about $100 that seems to
>  do everything that my spare PC with ClarkConnect does:
>  firewall, masquerading, etc.  I host www.linuxclassroom.org
>  on the PC in my basement and I thought I couldn't do that
>  behind an off-the shelf firewall.  But I installed a LinkSys
>  box between my brother's DSL and his two computers
>  and I discovered that I could have specific ports go through
>  to specific PCs on the inside network, so I could 
>  
>  So my questions are these: is a PC with a Linux-based firewall
>  any better or any worse that a commercial product such as
>  the LinkSys?  Is there anything that would make me choose 
>  one over the other?  Does the commercial box do everything
>  that the Linux PC does, and do it properly?
>  
>  ---
>  Roger Frank
>  _______________________________________________
>  CLUE-Tech mailing list
>  CLUE-Tech at clue.denver.co.us
>  http://clue.denver.co.us/mailman/listinfo/clue-tech





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