Another slightly different  suggestion -

Buy a linsys cable/dsl router and connect that to your cable modem and put 
all your boxes on the other side. Then you can experiment with your linux 
system, and even set it up as a webserver knowing that your network is 
always secure. When you are confident you know what you are doing, then get 
the 486, add linux, set it as up a firewall/router in front of your 
linksys. The linksys will protect your important stuff as you learn.

I have learned that linux and firewalls are not trivial beasts to master, 
and not impossible either. It just takes time to read, experiment, and 
learn.  While you are doing all that, you don't want your home network to 
be compromised or vulnerable.

BTW, this list is an invaluable resource.

Good luck!

Mark Phillips

I have a BEFSR41, and I am very happy with it. You can learn a lot about 
firewalls from it as well.

-----Original Message-----
From:	George Toft [SMTP:george@georgetoft.com]
Sent:	Thursday, October 24, 2002 8:49 PM
To:	plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject:	Re: Home server??

Hi Ruck,

Don't put your fileserver and printserver on your firewall.  Bad
combination.

Beg for some old 486 and make that your firewall.  Lock it down (plnty
o' material on that topic, including http://georgetoft.com/linux).  Put
the K6 box serving files and printing.  Lay out a plan on what you want,
and what you have to do to get there, then focus on each thing until you
accomplish your plan.

Feel free to ask questions here.

Shameless plug: My site contains step-by-step instructions on how to
build the firewall and secure it.  I just survived a week-long hack
attack, so I know it's good.

George


christian ruckdaschel wrote:
>
> Greetings.  Sorry about the HTML the first time -- I didn't even think 
about
> it.
>
> I've got a fresh install of RedHat 8.0 on a k6-2 400 box w/288MB ram. 
 I'm a
> new guy to Linux, but I'm not afraid to "get my hands dirty."
>
> What I want to do is set this box up as a file 
server/firewall/printserver
> for my home network.  The rest of the machines will be running WinXP Pro.
> My internet connection is through Cox.
>
> Can anyone point me in the right direction to get this going (books, 
message
> threads, how-to's, websites, etc.)?  I've been wanting to learn about 
Linux
> for years now, and I think this would be a good way to do it.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -Ruck
>
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