[CentOS] CentOS 4.5 and CentOS 5.0 News

[William L. Maltby]

On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 10:37 -0500, fredex wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 29, 2006 at 01:41:54PM +0000, Josh Donovan wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I use CentOS as a firewall/proxy/webserver/fileserver
> > in my small network.<snip>... 20 GB, pentium II with only 128 MB RAM.
> > 
> ><snip>


> Not directly answering your question, but...
> 
> You may wish to investigate one of the small standalone firewall
> distributions such as Smoothwall, IPCop, or m0n0wall (bsd-based).
> They will all easily run in 128mb, and are easy to configure.
> They are all easy to install. 
> 
> M0n0wall looks intriguing, I may give it a try here someday,... it runs
> from non-writable media such as a CD and saves config on a floppy. It
> can be run from a hard drive or a flash memory card of some sort too.
> The obvious advantage is that if someone cracks the machine they can't
> do any damage (to it, directly) because it's not writable.
> 
> And you really shouldn't be running web- or file-servers on your firewall,
> the more stuff running on it the more opportunities you present for an
> evil person/entity to crack it.
> 
> I'd suggest using one of the above then put another machine in a DMZ
> to do web server duty (if it is supposed to be externally visible--
> otherwise put it on another machine INSIDE the firewall on the "green"
> (allegedly safe) network).
> 
> I'm running Smoothwall Express 2.0 on my old K6-2/500 machine with
> 128MB of memory and a 3 or 4 gig drive. It just runs and runs and runs
> and doesn't come anywhere near using up all the memory. Before that
> box became available I ran it on things similar to P90 or AMD K5, both
> around 90-100 Mhz for several years with 64MB of ram and it ran just
> fine on those machines too.

I second all Fred says. I have IPCop on 200MHz Pentium with 96MB. Runs
steady and fast enough (good sites appx. 700K chars/sec. Cable and in
the boonies responsible for that).

I have also run it on my wifes discarded Aptiva (486 and 64MB? 32MB?)
and my AMD "486 clone", x586 100MHz 36MB. Only difference is speed.
Aptiva about 430K chars/sec, AMD about 510K chars/sec.

Like Aleksandr, I'm loaded with old used ceapo machines too (386SX
anyone?). If you can get a $20 machain (and one for backup?) you would
be making a wise investment, IMO, by having a firewall-dedicated node
separate from your "server/ws".

> 
> Fred
> <snip sig stuff>

HTH
--
Bill