Tuesday, April 8, 2008

I Am Not Alone

Saw an article that caught my eye over at tuxmachines that linked to the Why am I still typing?'s Weblog.

I have no clue why I clicked on it because the post was titled The hidden world of Linux. I am glad I clicked on the link because it seems Konrad has been pondering some of the same things I have been mulling over. He has indicated he will make some additional posts due to the feedback and response he has received about his initial post.

Over at Tech Source From Bohol Jun talked about some Free/Open-source Television Software available today. I had seen most of them but I did not know about GeeXboX. From the GeeXboX website:

You may think that such a thing requires a new generation computer ;-) That's where you're wrong !! An old P2-400 with 64 MB of RAM will be quite powerful enough to let the magic play. Also, the GeeXboX ISO only takes about 7 MB on disc. And of course, the whole thing can be managed by a either a keyboard, a remote controller or a joystick, thanks to its full OSD (On Screen Display) Menu.
So, what are you still waiting for ?? Xmas ?

Just go to the Downloads section and enjoy ;-)

That is a very small Linux ISO. It almost looks BSD like! It might be a very good lightweight front end to play media files.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello Thumos!

You seem to know (and have tested) a lot of the free *nix based routers and firewalls so I have got a question for you if you have got time.

Are there any of those routers/firewalls that live up to all these requirements (apart from the standard features), and if so what would the system requirements be? (It's for my home network obviously.)

*Throughput of atleast 100Mbps full duplex.
*Support of atleast 4 interfaces (2x WAN, 1 x DMZ, 1 x LAN)
*Fail-over and loadbalancing over the 2 WAN interfaces
*Policy/source routing from the LAN. (Depending if the data comes from Client X or Client Y the data should be routed through WAN #1 or WAN #2)
*Support of atleast 5 VPN tunnels that could be either LAN-to-LAN or Roadwarrior. L2TP / IPSEC / AES with certificate. (Preferably certificates should be possible to create in the firewalls UI)
*95%+ of the settings should be able to be maintained through an easy-to-use UI.

Thanks for your time! :)

Thumos said...

Sorry for the lengthy delay in responding!

I did not having the time to verify all of your requirements but I would point you in the direction of mOnOwall or pfSense as a potential solution.

It sounds like you are not interested in a UTM solution or ancillary services so I eliminate these from my reconmondations

Your requirements as stated:

1.Throughput of at least 100Mbps full duplex.

Meets your requirements: pfSense

Notes: Throughput = horsepower! you are looking at a 1.5 to 2.0GHz CPU (best guess) to maintain 100Mbps. Encrypting and decrypting traffic is CPU intensive, multiple VPNs with IPSEC will require a very robust box!

2.Support of at least 4 interfaces (2x WAN, 1 x DMZ, 1 x LAN)

Meets your requirements: pfSense

3.Fail-over and load balancing over the 2 WAN interfaces

Meets your requirements: pfSense

4.95%+ of the settings should be able to be maintained through an easy-to-use UI.

Meets your requirements: pfSense

5.Policy/source routing from the LAN. (Depending if the data comes from Client X or Client Y the data should be routed through WAN #1 or WAN #2)

Did not verify

6.Support of at least 5 VPN tunnels that could be either LAN-to-LAN or Roadwarrior. L2TP / IPSEC / AES with certificate. (Preferably certificates should be possible to create in the firewalls UI)

Notes: Did not verify but IPCop is not going to meet requirement #6 based on what I have read.

I hope this points you in the right direction.

Unknown said...

Thanks Thumos!

I will have a look at pfSense then.