Very Computer

Hi,

After quite some time, I have finally decided to put my 486/100 to
use. It has 32mb ram, about 1.5 GB of HD space (2 drives cant remember
exactly what each size is at that moment), diamond stealth vid card
with 2mb vram  (I hear you all laughing but this card was tops way
back in the day  hehe)

Although I am very familiar and comfortable with windows, I am an
absolute newbie to linux..  However,  I have read that Linux is very
good for using as a firewall/nat (especially given my ancient
hardware) and thats exactly what Id like to do.  I have three
Microsoft based computers running win 98/2000 dual boot, win2K and
Win2k server respectively.

I have read through deja and found that most have recommended, redhat
5.2 and 6x, slackware, & debian  for my platform

I am looking for advice/opinions on which distribution I should use
given my goals, hardware, and the fact that I am a newbie (a brief
explanation of why would help as well).

 In addition, I'm an online gamer so I guess I would need to make sure
that I can not only use my linux box with my win machines, but that I
will also be able to use gamespy and  play online.

I am also looking for resources on where I can learn how to do this.

any help will be most appreciated

Thanks

RS

**note**  I posted the following in comp.os.linux.security as well as
this group due to not knowing exactly which this post ought to be
directed to....my apologies for the cross post.

RH 6.2 will do the trick fine.  I'm running 6.0 on a 486DX266 just fine,
and it's serving my living room network via a dialup.

--

Quote:> Hi,

> After quite some time, I have finally decided to put my 486/100 to
> use. It has 32mb ram, about 1.5 GB of HD space (2 drives cant remember
> exactly what each size is at that moment), diamond stealth vid card
> with 2mb vram  (I hear you all laughing but this card was tops way
> back in the day  hehe)

> Although I am very familiar and comfortable with windows, I am an
> absolute newbie to linux..  However,  I have read that Linux is very
> good for using as a firewall/nat (especially given my ancient
> hardware) and thats exactly what Id like to do.  I have three
> Microsoft based computers running win 98/2000 dual boot, win2K and
> Win2k server respectively.

> I have read through deja and found that most have recommended, redhat
> 5.2 and 6x, slackware, & debian  for my platform

> I am looking for advice/opinions on which distribution I should use
> given my goals, hardware, and the fact that I am a newbie (a brief
> explanation of why would help as well).

>  In addition, I'm an online gamer so I guess I would need to make sure
> that I can not only use my linux box with my win machines, but that I
> will also be able to use gamespy and  play online.

> I am also looking for resources on where I can learn how to do this.

> any help will be most appreciated

> Thanks

> RS

> **note**  I posted the following in comp.os.linux.security as well as
> this group due to not knowing exactly which this post ought to be
> directed to....my apologies for the cross post.

I was in the same position you are in now about 2 weeks ago and I now have a
486 50, 10MB ram, 600MB hd running as an IP masquerading machine hooked to a
cable modem.  I found the most help in the Firewall and Proxy Server HOWTO
(maybe just firewall howto), Linux IPCHAINS HOWTO (maybe just IPCHAINS
howto), and IP Masquerade HOWTO.  A good place to find these is at
http://www.linux.org where you can get not only the howtos, but a whole
bunch more information about linux.  My system is using RedHat 6.0.  If you
don't have linux at all, I would recomend getting it from
http://www.cheapbytes.com , they have linux cds for like $2.  That's where I
got mine from.  Another good source of information is the linux newsgroups,
like this one.  If you have looked for a solution in the HOWTOS and linux
websites you know of and haven't found a solution, then turn to the
newsgroups.  Once you get linux up and running, read through the HOWTO's
that pertain to you to get started.  Good Luck!!

--------------------------

Tyler Ham
ICQ# 64323847
Registered with the Linux Counter: http://counter.li.org
ID # 182532

I strongly recommend Slackware for any serious work like this, possibly
Debian as well. REdHat just wants to paint pretty pictures on your screen,
but generally isn't very good at anything other than web browsing.

TurboLinux install is easy, but I installed that as the server edition,
which is more costly. The workstation version is here somewhere, but I
haven't tried it so not sure if everything for masq firewall is in it.

But slak will have you up in 15 minutes if used properly.

Been running Slackware here since 1995 and have tried RedHat/Debian/Turbo

Good luck, it is really easy. And the hardware ou chose is perfect. My
firewall is a P120 64MB(because I had it)

-GC

Quote:> Hi,

> After quite some time, I have finally decided to put my 486/100 to
> use. It has 32mb ram, about 1.5 GB of HD space (2 drives cant remember
> exactly what each size is at that moment), diamond stealth vid card
> with 2mb vram  (I hear you all laughing but this card was tops way
> back in the day  hehe)

> Although I am very familiar and comfortable with windows, I am an
> absolute newbie to linux..  However,  I have read that Linux is very
> good for using as a firewall/nat (especially given my ancient
> hardware) and thats exactly what Id like to do.  I have three
> Microsoft based computers running win 98/2000 dual boot, win2K and
> Win2k server respectively.

> I have read through deja and found that most have recommended, redhat
> 5.2 and 6x, slackware, & debian  for my platform

> I am looking for advice/opinions on which distribution I should use
> given my goals, hardware, and the fact that I am a newbie (a brief
> explanation of why would help as well).

>  In addition, I'm an online gamer so I guess I would need to make sure
> that I can not only use my linux box with my win machines, but that I
> will also be able to use gamespy and  play online.

> I am also looking for resources on where I can learn how to do this.

> any help will be most appreciated

> Thanks

> RS

> **note**  I posted the following in comp.os.linux.security as well as
> this group due to not knowing exactly which this post ought to be
> directed to....my apologies for the cross post.

Hello there, I recommend reading thru the stuff at
www.linux-firewall-tools.com
in addition to the other links/books other people have recomended...

A word of caution, although the setup you describe is adequate for most
uses, gamespy may not work. Apparently, it fills up the NAT tables (or
something like that).... basically, if you don't use gamespy, you're fine
otherwise.

HTH
--
[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[  Avijit Bandyopadhyay  ]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]
 Computer Engineering & Management | McMaster IEEE - Treasurer
 McMaster University, Hamilton, CA | McMaster Amateur Radio Society
[.....Montreal Canadiens....... E.R.T.W. .........Brasil in '02..........]

Hi there,

I'm running a 486DX4 with 32 RAM as a router/firewall, with a Bay
Networks cable modem on Slackware 7.1, just the stripped down version
with the basic components and networking features (about 80 megs) with 2
Pentium II's, 300 + 400 Mhz. Gamespy works perfectly fine on both
machines. Slackware is perfect because they have kept it simple, letting
you install graphical applications as an option. The firewall that I am
using is the PMFirewall, version 1.1.4. http://www.pointman.org
Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament.....no problems...

Regards,

-
Patrick Benson
Stockholm, Sweden

Hi there,

I'm running a 486DX4 with 32 RAM as a router/firewall, with a Bay
Networks cable modem on Slackware 7.1, just the stripped down version
with the basic components and networking features (about 80 megs) with 2
Pentium II's, 300 + 400 Mhz. Gamespy works perfectly fine on both
machines. Slackware is perfect because they have kept it simple, letting
you install graphical applications as an option. The firewall that I am
using is the PMFirewall, version 1.1.4. http://www.pointman.org
Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament.....no problems...

Regards,

-
Patrick Benson
Stockholm, Sweden