[lug] Wanted: Tiny diskless, fanless Linux Box for Firewall/Router/Hub/NAT

[David Morris]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 09:28:33AM -0700, Siegfried Heintze wrote:
> 
> Will coyote linux accommodate multiple external IP
> addresses and route them to my choice of internal
> addresses/ports? If not, what will?

The flavor of Linux you choose is irrelevant.  Its specific
features you need to look for.  The first requirement is
either iptables or ipcahins support (iptables is newer and
far better).  This is mainly dependant on the kernel you
use...the 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels have iptables support,
2.2.x kernels use ipchains.  Once you have the appropriate
kernel setup you simply need to install relevant support
pacakges.

The second requirement is the ethernet interfaces.  If you
always have one IP address per ethernet port there are no
special requirements, any kernel will work.  If, on the
other hand, you are going to have multiple IP addresses on a
single ethernet port the kernel needs to support virtual
ethernet ports (e.g. eth0:1).  This is fairly standard in
most kernels but not universal.

All other features you need beyond the above will exist in
any Linux distro which is capable of acting as a
firewall/router.

I am not familiar with coyote linux but unless it is a
special-purpose distro with limited or no network
functionality than it will almost certainly work.  As
always, though, I recommend Debian for any system you need
stability, such as a firewall/router.

--David