[CentOS] Multiple WAN link -- CentOS Suitability

Thu Jul 19 13:19:09 UTC 2007
Andrew Cotter <andrew.cotter at somersetcapital.com>

If you are open to not using CentOS (which is wonderful), I would suggest
something like pfsense.  http://www.pfsense.com/
 
Based on M0n0wall and I think it will do what you are looking for.   This
would mean you would need a seperate set of hardware however.  As for
hardware, if you have an old machine around, it would probably work.  We use
WRAP boards from PC Engines and they do a great job.
http://www.pcengines.ch/wrap.htm
 
The WRAP board is being discontinued, but the new versions will be out
shortly.  You can still get them at Wisp-Router
(http://www.wisp-router.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=WRAP%2E1E23%2F1)
 
Hope that helps!
 
Andrew



________________________________

	From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org]
On Behalf Of Raymond M. Subasic
	Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 1:03 AM
	To: 'CentOS mailing list'
	Subject: [CentOS] Multiple WAN link -- CentOS Suitability
	
	
	--> 

	My situation:

	I have a cable modem (COMCAST 6Mbit d/l) and am about to also have
DSL (Verizon 3 Mbit d/l).  I was thinking of using CentOS (4.4, 4.5, or 5??)
as a router/dhcp server/firewall for my home network consisting of 3 to 6
computers at any given time.  I seek the wisdom of the members of this list
on the following issues:

	 

	--  Is CENTOS a good direction to go?  I do not mind manually
configuring things or installing lots of packages, and am doing this as both
a learning experience for myself and proof of concept for a customer.

	--  Is it possible/hard/easy/trivial to share the load between the
two connections?  Have either link fail and things still work correctly?

	--  I plan to build a box for this job - looking for general
recommendations of how much horsepower (mem/disk space, etc) is required

	--  What are the implications of two pipes for incoming connections
such as DynDNS based  remote desktop or VNC, or web server, FTP, etc

	 

	The basic hardware layout I see is 3 nics, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB disk
space.  1 NIC for each WAN port, 1 NIC for my local net, some recent CPU.

	 

	I have been browsing through the "Linux Advanced Routing & Traffic
Control HOWTO," but am still not on top of how to get done what I'm looking
for.  I understand that there are probably products that I could buy to do
this, but my preference is to do it myself.

	 

	Sorry if my questions are too basic.  Please feel free to tell me
off if so.  Thanks.

	 

	rsubasic