Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 03 Oct 2002 09:11:43 +0200
From:      "Roger 'Rocky' Vetterberg" <listsub@401.cx>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: advise on gateway-setup
Message-ID:  <3D9BEDAF.6080606@401.cx>
References:  <20021002160429.GC96783@deter.dk>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Morten Grunnet Buhl wrote:
> Hey all,
> I have been using FreeBSD as desktop and server for over two years now.
> However, my knowledge on buying hardware to and setting up a gateway is
> very limited. Actually I have only toyed around with this in the
> security and comfort of my own home.
> 
> Ok. After this little self promo its time for my questions.
> The building I live in has 200+ apartments which in near future will
> share an (I hope) powerful internet connection. Now I was put in-charge
> of selecting the equipment to preform firewalling and gateway.
> What I like it to do is firewalling and some sort of natted intranet
> with bandwidth management. My question is. How powerful should the
> gateway/firewall be? I am thinking about CPU and RAM and hardware en
> general. Also I would be glad to get pointers on where to read for
> setting up this..ofcause I will start whit the handbook right about here
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking.html
> and then go to google
> 
> But if anybody has seen other documents/articles/manpages I should read
> please point me to em, this could really safe me some time, thanks. 
> --
> DetEr.dk - Rules are made to control the fun.
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

I built a firewall several years ago that has about 200 clients behind 
it, is in use 24/7 and handles connections that peaks at about 
10MB/sec external and 100MBit/sec internal. It also runs a VPN 
connection to a remote office. The hardware is a PII 266 with 128M 
ram. AFAIK, this firewall has never failed them. I upgrade it every 
other month or so to make sure its patched, but other then that I 
never touch it and it runs just fine. Compared to what it would cost 
to buy a ready firewall for a 10MBit connection and several 100MBit 
inside interfaces, the cost of an old PII is neglectable.

If you decide to build your own machine, do not try to save money on 
cheap parts. Saving $10 or so on buying cheap fans can come back and 
bite you big time later. Make sure you have sufficient cooling, the 
most common cause of harddrive crashes is overheating, believe it or 
not. Go with Intel nic's, they are expensive but superior to most 
other brands. If you dont need it, dont buy the latest and fastest CPU 
you can get. In a case like this, a PIII would probably be more than 
enough, and doesnt require the insane cooling a P4 or newer AMD would.
As someone mentioned, a Dell Poweredge or maybe a Compaq DL360 or 
similar would probably suit your needs.

--
R


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3D9BEDAF.6080606>