linux router

i'm setting up a LAN in my flat that basically consists of four computers joined at a hub which connects to a router, which connects to the internet. the hub we have, and the router we have, to an extent. it's a rather old machine of my dad's with a 2-gig HD, network card, USB connection, slow processor and not much else...

i could just use win98 with it and run LanSuite and another program, i forget what it's called, so that it acts as a router and i can control it remotly, but i would rather use linux (as i have never really used it before, so i shall learn! and because it's good for networking, and because microsoft use linux servers...)

so, yeah, can anyone recommend any (free) linux distributions and other software that i could use. i've been given a week to do this before my flatmates revolt and make me use windows...so help would be appreciated.

thanks 😛

www.distrowatch.com, try searching for router.

routers are pretty cheap, i went to microcenter.com, searched for router, sorted on price ... the cheapest routers were $35 ... imagine all the person-hours you are going to spend to set up a fresh linux box to do the same ... and final product might not be too fast as compared to storebought, esp. if the box is old ...

Originally posted by zeeblebot
routers are pretty cheap, i went to microcenter.com, searched for router, sorted on price ... the cheapest routers were $35 ... imagine all the person-hours you are going to spend to set up a fresh linux box to do the same ... and final product might not be too fast as compared to storebought, esp. if the box is old ...

a vote here for smoothwall ( http://www.smoothwall.org/ )

it can do the routing that you need, and can also act as a firewall to help protect your pc's. free, blah blah.

good, simple distro that doesn't need much in the way of horsepower. just make sure you have two nic's.

router (red interface) -> smoothwall -> hub (green interface) -> pc's

/edit: seems that this forum doesn't support hyperlinks...