--- Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org> wrote: > Chris Mauritz wrote: > > Ugo Bellavance wrote: > >> Mark Weaver wrote: > >>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >>> Hash: SHA1 > >>> > >>> On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 08:57:22 -0500 > >>> Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote: > >>>> Have you ever thought about how rare floppy > drives are now? At best > >>>> you go with a bootable usb, if your notebook > supports bootable USB. > >>>> My Libretto does have a bootable floppy, but > that is something extra > >>>> to carry. It will not boot from anything else > (besides its HD). My > >>>> nc4010 (this notebook) will boot from usb. My > corp notebook (nc2400) > >>>> is locked down; and I don't see any value at > getting corp IT bent out > >>>> of shape. > >>> > >>> why would you even think about using a Notebook > computer as a firewall? > >>> I was assuming you were going to delegate this > task to an older machine > >>> with sufficient resources to handle the task and > not give the task to a > >>> notebook computer. > >> > >> I guess he wants it to be portable. > >> > >> He seems to be knowing his requirements a lot > better than we do. It > >> looks like he wants an easy firewall that would > boot for HD only, cost > >> nothing, and runs with usb ethernet devices. > >> > >> I really think he should carry an embedded > firewall (like a soekris or > >> a wrap) with pfsense on it. > > > > Old laptops make pretty good firewalls, I think. > They take little > > space, have a built-in battery backup and built-in > keyboard/monitor to > > use when you are visiting the datacenter. I have > repurposed a couple > > of older laptops for these reasons since the > machine doesn't need to be > > very fast to accomplish the mission. A lot of 3-4 > year old laptops cave > > in under the weight of Windows, but are really > overkill for a simple > > unix firewall. Better than sending them to the > dustbin. > > > > hmmm ... I would think that they do not handle heat > very well though. > > Maybe they do, and certainly it is better than > throwing them away I guess. > > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > The bad thing is if you always keep the laptop plugged in the battery will be useless and will not hold a charge. That is what happen with one of my laptops.