[wellylug] Laptop as a firewall?

[Simon Canning]

On Sunday 27 June 2004 14:39, Ian Beardslee wrote:
Hi Ian,

A good place to start a search is http://www.distrowatch.com :)  You might 
also like to have a look at http://www.clarkconnect.org/developer/roadmap.php 

I haven't tried this particular distro myself, but it does specifically 
mention that it has improved support for wireless and being based on Fedora 
C2 there is the possibility that it would still have pcmia support.

The main problem I can see with Clark is the number of services that you might 
be tempted to run on it.

HTH
 
> I have decided to splash out and finally get cable internet (ok, playing
> catch up to the bro-in-law), but before I do that I am wanting to ensure
> that I have a survivable firewall running for the home network.
>
> The plan is that I have a laptop (P200MMX, 144MB, 2GB, CD, Floppy, 1 x
> USB, PCMCIA, dodgey screen) as the firewall.  Using the laptop means that
> it is small, lowish power, relatively quiet and I don't need to have a
> screen and keyboard cluttering things up.  With the laptop down by the TV
> in the living room, the wireless PCMCIA card (still to be bought) connects
> to the wireless access point (still to be bought) in the 'computer room'
> where the rest of the PCs connect to it via a hub (got one of those :-)
> and any wireless laptops the flatmate may happen to have.
>
> I was getting all gungho to install ipcop or smoothwall to the laptop but
> neither of those support PCMCIA or USB Wireless (or even wired) yet - of
> course I discover this after downloading the ISO and the fixes for ipcop :
> -(
>
> ** NOTE TO SELF: - RTFM FIRST **
>
> The first thing that went through my head (well after some colourful
> language) was grab the ipcop source and recompile an updated kernel for it
> - anyone tried that?  Had any luck?
>
> Of course I could just go the Linksys WRT54G way and think about using a
> third party image for the extra bits I think I want :-)
>
> Does anyone have any other bright ideas?
>
> Many thanks in anticipation,
>
> Ian