will an old computer work

[c44151]

I got an old 120mhz computer sitting around and was wondering if I installed 2 network cards and use it as a firewall will I get a speed decrease or will it be about the same.
the computer got formatted and win98 installed on it and that is all. the firewall I was planning on using is zone alarm 4

you should use this

http://www.smoothwall.org/

but if you insist on using win98 it will run and you shouldnt have a decrease in speed

[Mickwish]

No, don't use zonealarm as a firewall like that. It won't work.

I'd suggest if you have an old PC, try a dedicated linux distro firewall/router like IPCop. Easy to set up, and easy to manage.

If you want to to do, and have any problems, there are plenty iof ppl here who run these types of firewall that can help you.

Just bear in mind the box will no longer be useful for anything else. It'll just be a dedicated firewall/router. Secure. The way it should be.

Cheers
Mick

Edit: BTW, GZ3, YGPM

[c44151]

i need to import some ip's
all the computer will be used for is a firewall nothing else

[Mickwish]

What do you mean "import" some IP's??

Thanks
Mick

[c44151]

import/ enter ip adresses like 192.xxx.0.0 to 192.xxx.0.255
there will be a few ranges like this

[Mickwish]

Oh, you want it to act as a DHCP server and give out LAN IP addresses? IPcop and smoothwall can do that, no worries.

Cheers
Mick

[c44151]

i want it to block to keep my kids of of some websites

[c44151]

and will it slow down my connection
thanks for the help
my main computer is runing winxp and will this be a problem
and the firewall computer doesn't matter what it runs as long as it works with my main computer and doesn't take up more than 1gigs of memory or my harddrive will be full

[Mickwish]

No, it wouldn't slow the connection down if set up right, and your old PC waqs fast enough (120MHz is plenty fast enough! )

IPCop and smoothwall also have a filtering add-on called Dan's Guardian, which is easy to use, and allows you to set IP's to be filtered, and change the level of filtering. IOr, if you are a linux guru, you could just set up squid to filter sites for you.

The main reason I would suggest NOT to use win98 for a fireall box OS is that it is very unsecure. And ZA is not truly designed to act as a gateway firewall, IMO, which is what you want.

Cheers
Mick

1 gig HDD would be fine for basic IPCop install, but might be too small if you want to run internet filtering add-on like Dan's Guardian. 2 gig would be more realistic for Dan's Guardian, and at least 64MB sytem RAM.