[CentOS] Router for SOHO network - hardware considerations

Mon Nov 22 06:51:46 UTC 2010
Niki Kovacs <contact at kikinovak.net>

Hi,

Last week I finished installing a small network in a private school : 
one server (an old IBM X225), seventeen desktops (Fujitsu Siemens PIV 
2.4 GHZ, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HD), all running CentOS 5.5.

One extra machine is acting as a router, in that it is installed between 
the DSL modem and the network, with two Ethernet cards, and it's taking 
care of DHCP, DNS, NTP and also acts like a proxy (with Squid). It seems 
quite big and noisy and electricity-consuming to me, so I wonder if 
there is any small device that could possibly do the job as good, but 
which would me more adapted : small, solid and cheap (if possible). I 
imagine some tiny box just with a CPU and a small harddisk, a little RAM 
and two network interfaces (one out, one in), where I could install a 
very stripped-down CentOS, and then just forget about it.

So far, I've googled a bit, and I've found two things: 1) Pyramid 
Soekris boards, where I can put something like Pyramid Linux on it. And 
2) The Linksys WRT54GL, for which there are Linux firmwares like OpenWRT 
and DD-WRT.

Is there anything you could especially recommend for this job? (I'm not 
afraid of getting my hands dirty, BTW :oD)

Cheers,

Niki