[kwlug-disc] IPCop (and friends) vs hardware router

[Kiwi Ssennyonjo]

The choice is simple and clear in my opinion. Pfsense is your appliance
It will do everything on your list and more.

Sent from my iPhone

On 17-Jun-09, at 23:36, Paul Nijjar <paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca> wrote:

>
>
> In one corner, I have a an IPCop box that I am getting increasingly
> unhappy with. IPCop has been pretty solid for me and I have
> appreciated a few of the add-ons, but I have been trying to block all
> traffic on certain ports and it is not working.
>
> In the other corner I have a Linksys WRT54GL router, onto which I
> have the option of installing some open firmware. (I am so done with
> proprietary black box firmware with bad logging. Sorry, D-Link.)
>
> In the third corner I have the possibility of playing with pfSense or
> Xorp or whatever the Next Big Thing is in putting a router on an x86
> box.
>
> In the fourth corner I have me, whimpering and rocking back and forth
> as I struggle to understand all of the options and get something
> working so that Rogers quits threatening to shut down our internet
> access.
>
> I don't want much more than what a home router offers. Maybe these
> things are not offered by all home routers:
>  - I do want the ability to expand (e.g. with OpenVPN) in the future
>  - I do want good logging
>  - I do want to block traffic on some ports
>  - I do want to expose some ports on a server
>  - I want the protection against Internet attacks to be good
>  - I want something that is maintained and has updates
>  - I want both exposure to internals if I need twiddling, and a
>    reasonable GUI so that I (and my co-workers) don't have to twiddle
>    with everything
>  - I do NOT want wireless at this time (even though the Linksys has
>    wireless)
>  - I want to get this working at a basic level without a lot of
>    twiddling
>  - I want performance to be good enough so that my users don't
>    notice that something has changed
>
> Maybe I am asking for pie in the sky. Maybe not. Which of the first
> three corners should I focus on, and why?
>
> In terms of the second corner, there appear to be a number of  
> different
> firmwares available. Which do I want to use?
>
> In terms of the third corner, which of the many router distributions
> should I consider and why?
>
> I realize that this cry for help sounds a lot like "Which distribution
> is the best?" because that is exactly what it is. However, telling me
> what you have chosen and why will be probably be enlightening.
>
> - Paul
>
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