View Full Version : Any Linux gods that can tell me...
Right, this might get a little confusing because frankly I don't have a clue what I'm talking about, so bare with ;). What I want to do is build a machine that will kind of act as a firewall, and a printer controller, and a gateway. Basically it would go something like this......
............................ADSL connection
...........................................|
...........................................|
..............................Linux box described above
................................|................| .................|
................................|................| .................|
.............................Hub.........Printer.. ......Wireless net to laptop
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..........................Network
Thusly the network would access the internet and printer via hub > box. And the Laptop would access the internet using a USB wireless thing attached to the box. And everything should be able to print. :D
My question is (before me parting with wads of cash), am I asking too much, or should this be relatively simple to do in a smoothwall style?
Any input appreciated.
//ASCII art rulez - I had to put the dots in 'cos it kept formatting my spaces out!
Linux_dude
29-06-2003, 18:26
Forthy,
So you want to have a Linux box as a firewall a print server and a gateway for the rest of the computers on your home network??
OK this is certainly DOABLE in linux. With a little homework and getting your hands a little dirty :) Ready for a learning curve?
My first question would be have you ever used linux before?
My second being do you already own a USB ADSL modem? Cus if you do then if you want to use it with linux your probably going to have a hard time. Check this link (http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdevcat.php?id=14) for a listing for supported devices. And if you dont already own one I would suggest getting one with a ethernet connection as it is much better supported under the Linux kernel. I must admit that I do not have much experience with ADSL modems as my area is not ADSL enabled - yet (roll on September), but I'll do my research to help you as it'll be usefull for me too.
Thirdly which type of printer do you have and do you/can you use your USB or parallel connection.
Lastly - could you please give me details about the wireless card you intend on using?
Get back to me with the details of what I've talked about so far, and I'll try and help you get up and running.
<=Craig Miller=>
Craig, Thanks for this, it's most appreciated.
No I haven't played much with linux before, but I start my "linux for dummies" bedtime reading tonight :D. I'm also a pretty quick learner, and thought this would be a cunning project to throw me in at the deepend.
I don't currently use a USB modem, and would be looking to purchase an ethernet job, or (possibly, although so far everything I've read would sugget NOT!) a PCI job so the whole thing would be contained within one unit. I'm open to suggestions on which would be best.
For wireless I was going to use this USB one (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&refp=USB&mid=010&tid=716&ob=price&obd=asc&stab=ref&p=&lp=&up=&mc=&sc=&Refine.x=42&Refine.y=12) (second one down) because one of the reviews was a guy who had it running on a linux system, and it's cheap. It'll also mean if I want to wireless net my Lappy somewhere else I can just unplug that unit and take it with me. Do you think PCI would be a better route?
The printer is a Canon BJC 2000 that runs off the parallel port.
Ok as already said, best bet is to start at the top with a modem/router with ethernet.
You need 2 Wired NIC's (adsl in & lan out)
You need a supported Wireless NIC, best bet is to look for one with a Prism2 Chipset - mine do and they've all worked perfectly with many flavours of Linux.
Software wise, after choosing your distro (dont bother about a GUI, you are best of without one), using a firewall instruction set such as PF or IPF, you can filter traffic on the adsl in NIC. You can also determine NAT & set it up for any internal servers needing external access.
Printers are straightforward enough if they are supported by the manufacturer. Its also possible to set it up to print from a computer on the net - funky stuff :)
Anything else? im sure we'll help.
Printer should be fine, but double check with both Canon and the supported hardware on the *nix flavours website.
Get the Ethernet Modem - much wiser investment.
Not really sure about the Wireless NIC to be honest, i'll take a look about for information on it later - but again double check the websites of the *nix flavour & manufacturers.
Blimey *abe*, I only went to the kitchen and you've posted twice :D
Cheers for all the info so far gents, it's top.
Any recomendations as to a supported wireless NIC / ethernet modem / anything else discussed so far??
A good starting point might be IPCop, which is a bared down distro (a 22mb download), which would do the firewall and gateway.
I'm using it with an Alcatel USB ADSL Modem and it was easy to setup and get going. The only thing is that for this modem you need a firmware driver, but it can be obtained from the manufacturers. Contact me if you want to go with this.
The downside is that IPCop does not act as a network printer service out of the box and you'd be have to work out how to add that youself :-(, but it might be possible.
I suggest if you've yet to get a modem go for the ethernet variety not usb, it's just so much less hassle (I've much experience using the USB modem with linux and it can be a lot of hassle to set up). The ethernet one will just need to be attached and probably configured with username and password via windows (I would guess).
I only use the USB modem because I'm technically obliged to.
Linux_dude
29-06-2003, 23:39
Forthy - is this linux box going to be a dedicated linux rig? By this I mean will you be using it to learn more about Linux or do you just wanna set it up and forget about it, and occasionally do slight configuration changes? As this will *I think *be a major factor in choosing a distro. I know we are getting ahead of ourselves here but I would like to get more of a idea about what you want to do with it.
For example I know from personal experience that the aforementioned Alcatel USB modem is very easy to set up in mandrake.
Not to contradict *abe* in any way, (you seem far more knowledgeable about this than I do) but I think that for a newcomer to Linux you should maybe try Mandrake 9.1 to "break you in", instead of going straight for a command prompt.
By the way forthy Im not trying to say that you couldnt handle going straight to a command - its just a lot easier to do things in a point and click fasion to begin with. BUT this depends on what kind of computer your running it on. I have no idea, you may wanna run this on a 286 in which case you can forget about a graphicly intense distro like mandrake.
This one will be "set-up and forget about" - but I will be using that "setting up" to learn about how Linux works and building another box to use as a secondary PC so I can migrate from the Gates Motel.
The base I was going to use (for both systems, but lets just talk about the firewall/gateway/print-server for now!) was an Epia (http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_mini_itx_spec.jsp?motherboardId=21) with the built in 533MHz CPU and passive heatsink. This might have to change though if we decide that the USB wireless device is impracticle as I'll need another PCI slot.
Woakesd, I'd looked at IPcop and smoothwall but decided to take this approach for the learning experience. Thanks though, have you found IPcop easy to use/set-up/modify to your needs?
Although i cant help with the Linux side of things, as i am yet to start learning it myself, just wanna mention a point about the 1 pci slot issue on the Epia. You can get double slot PCI rider cards for them. :)
I'm using the epia 533 for my ipcop machine, with a 256Mb flash card for a hard drive (no noise!) using a special flash-ide adaptor and 32mb memory.
As regards modifying IPCop to do other things, it's not really a beginners task. I've got a usb webcam hung off mine and that involved a kernel rebuilt on Redhat 7.2 and rebuilding a software package called xawtv on this also (to get the latest version of a command line util called webcam). It wasnt very difficult but i do have a lot of experience fiddling with linux and that helped (a lot).
IPCop is very easy to setup and configure within the bounds of what it is designed for (being a Firewall with dial out capabilities), using a web based interface (note however, that the Epia 533 does not have a floppy interface so you cannot use the built in backup utility, because the alternative of a USB floppy is not seen as a conventional floppy by linux, I can give you the commands to make a backup of your configuration if you need it, which can then be copied elsewhere). You could try installing Cups into IPCop but again you need a seperate environment to do it.
I would suggest you do the following:
1. Epia 533 for IPCop
2. A dedicated printer server (I use a small D-Link box which plugs into the printer parallel port)
3. A wireless access point which you plug into your switch (I suspect you cannot use a PCI wireless card as an Access point for 802.11b networks).
Sorry, I just read your requirements properly...
I would imagine you will have an interesting time getting that wireless adapter working with a linux box! Without knowing what exactly it is (ie what chipset is in it) you wont know if it will work with linux until you try it.
An interesting starting point for wireless networks is
http://www.ackers.org.uk/
Trouble is they scare me off building a wireless network on the current 802.11b protocol (you could end up sharing access to your network with neighbourhood without meaning to, even with encryption etc in place). Your neighbours would have to be very technically astute.
Anyway, IPCop would probably not be your ideal for this project as the built in support for USB is mainly there for USB wired network devices. So you will need to get into rebuilding the kernel and (probably) adding extra bits of software.
If you really want to try the linux route build something around the 533 board but use plenty of memory (128Mb min) and a conventional harddrive (10Mb+), install Mandrake, see if you can get everything working like that and when it is, change the init level to 3 (which disables X) and take away the moniter and keyboard.
good luck.
Alternatively (but less interesting) you could consider the Netgear FM114P (dabs quick code 22ZVWS) which does firewall, routing, print server and wireless access point. You would have to use a ethernet ADSL modem with this tho.
Originally posted by woakesd
good luck.
Alternatively (but less interesting) you could consider the Netgear FM114P (dabs quick code 22ZVWS) which does firewall, routing, print server and wireless access point. You would have to use a ethernet ADSL modem with this tho.
:D - that gadget wouldn't be half as much fun as trying to do it myself ;).
So that leaves me with requesting suggestions (preferably with links) as to wireless NIC's to chuck in to the box. And also, do the PCI doublers cause any problems with performance??
Once again thanks to everyone who has contributed so far and to all who contribute in the future :cool:
Ok, the plan is still as per the first post, but based on the above inputs, and inputs from PJ, Kynoch and Dead_One on IRC the equipment list has changed slightly. This is still very much a rough guide and suggestions are still welcome, and actively sought.
A shuttle SV24 as the base unit will give me the onboard LAN for connection to the ADSL modem, and a PCI doubler will give me a wired NIC to connect to the hub and a pleasing wireless NIC for the lappy. A slight dremeling of the backplate should make all of that fit :D
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