Very Computer

I am interested in using FreeBSD as a barrier between the big-bad Internet
and my Win98 box like so:

                     __________
ISP                 |           |         ___________
<--    ------       |  FreeBSD  |        |           |
-------| DSL|-------| smtp/natd |--------|   Win98   |
       ------       | http/ipfw |        |___________|
                    |___________|

However, I would also like to use the FBSD box as an email hub and possibly
serve low-bandwidth http traffic.  The only interactive user will probably
be myself.

What would someone recommend as a minimum configuration to be able to
sustain transfers through the firewall at ~640Kb/sec.?  Of course, this
will be peak, but I will be serving other things as stated above.

Thanks,

-Clint

        www.freebsd.org search for samba

Quote:

>                      __________
> ISP                 |           |         ___________
> <--    ------       |  FreeBSD  |        |           |
> -------| DSL|-------| smtp/natd |--------|   Win98   |
>        ------       | http/ipfw |        |___________|
>                     |___________|

        Nice diagram

Quote:> However, I would also like to use the FBSD box as an email hub and possibly
> serve low-bandwidth http traffic.  The only interactive user will probably
> be myself.

        Good

Quote:

> What would someone recommend as a minimum configuration to be able to
> sustain transfers through the firewall at ~640Kb/sec.?  Of course, this
> will be peak, but I will be serving other things as stated above.

        486/dx66 or above, 2GB HDD (if you can still find one), 32MB ram or
above
        Go get webmin at www.webmin.com if you just want to use the BSD box.

Given your traffic, i'd say you've got a good bead on a good minimum config
already. SMTP, natd, http, ipfw. A *minimum* for the ipfw would be

$fwcmd add 65000 pass all from any to any

With you being the only user on the box, and the peak being 640Kbps, FreeBSD
would have no trouble handling that. Heck. Look at walnut creek.

Of course your milage may vary depending on your hardware.

--

If you're going to make it in space, you have to stay shiny.

I have a system with two NICs in almost this identical configuration
running FreeBSD 3.2 on a Pentium Pro 200 with 32MB of RAM, but I have 10
clients and also run a mail/FTP server. It runs great!

-->Neil

On Wed, 26 Jan 2000 06:00:03 GMT, Derek Ward, Kaiju no Hakase

Actually, that's precisely the kind of advice I want.  I was curious as to
what hardware config would be acceptable.  I guess the worst case scenario
would be me banging on the FreeBSD box at the same time my wife (on Win98)
is either accessing the net through the f/w or reading her mail via POP
from the BSD box.  One person suggested a minimum of DX4.

Right now I am running Win98 on a 300MHz PII that already has 64M RAM and a
Diamond Fireport 40, IBM 4.5GUW SCSI.  My intention was to eventually make
this a FBSD box and a new faster machine would become the Winblows box, but
the timing of events are such that it's not going to work so smoothly.

Thanks,

-Clint

Hello,

Here's what I use for my cable connection : ('t was a door stop, but
it's life is much happier now)

CPU: i486DX (486-class CPU)  [33 MHz]
real memory  = 20971520 (20480K bytes)
[SNIP]
ed0 at 0x300-0x31f irq 10 on isa
ed0: address 52:54:4c:1b:90:1b, type NE2000 (16 bit)
ed1 at 0x280-0x29f irq 5 on isa
ed1: address 00:40:05:61:20:3e, type NE2000 (16 bit)
[SNIP]
wdc0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 on isa
wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <ST3283A>
wd0: 233MB (479220 sectors), 978 cyls, 14 heads, 35 S/T, 512 B/S

My connection is limited to around 512kbps, but even when downloading at
that speed, I barely see the CPU load going higher than 20% (so there is
lots of cycles for other tasks, like sendmail, ...)

Your PII seems highly over-sized for just a gateway, unless you run a
rc5 client on it ;-)

        TfH

Minimum would be an i486DX2/66 with 32 MB of RAM.  You could go as low
as an i386SX if you wanted, but I wouldn't use it for much else than
maybe PicoBSD.  You can create a low end FreeBSD NAT gateway by dumpster
diving.  xDSL, ISDN or cable modem routers are easy.

If you plan to expand the FreeBSD box to be a bonifide server with
users, ftp space, STMP relay with sendmail and other goodies the more
CPU and RAM, the better.  Pentium Pro boxes work very well with FreeBSD.
Mine's running a pair of PPro-166s on an Intel PR440FX motherboard with
128 MB of RAM.  It makes a very nice low end (by today's standards)
server.

If you're stuck with ISA NICs, I'm partial to SMC8216s because of the
16K shared memory window.  They can be found used.  If you're going to
stick with PCI, I'm partial to any i8255x based NIC that's supported by
the fxp driver.  In spite of Bill Paul's excellent mass production
effort at cranking out NIC drivers, those IMO are still the best NICs to
use with FreeBSD.

Bill can only do so much with broken hardware.  :)  It's because of
Bill's observations in his NIC driver release notes that I have stuck
with NICs that use the fxp driver.
--

JCA

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

A couple of people have queried, and I wanted to make clear that the FBSD
box will also be my interactive terminal.  This is not just a dedicated
proxy.

-Clint

Quote:

>Actually, that's precisely the kind of advice I want.  I was curious as to
>what hardware config would be acceptable.  I guess the worst case scenario
>would be me banging on the FreeBSD box at the same time my wife (on Win98)
>is either accessing the net through the f/w or reading her mail via POP
>from the BSD box.  One person suggested a minimum of DX4.

>Right now I am running Win98 on a 300MHz PII that already has 64M RAM and
>a Diamond Fireport 40, IBM 4.5GUW SCSI.  My intention was to eventually
>make this a FBSD box and a new faster machine would become the Winblows
>box, but the timing of events are such that it's not going to work so
>smoothly.