Not really sure where is best to post this so hope its under the right topic.
I'm a first year Electronic Engineering student, so I don't know much yet, but I enjoy experimenting. I found one of my dad's old laptops, Acer TravelMate 512DX, took it apart, put the hardware back, and now looking for a nice place to mount it. heh.
I thought of using the computer as a router, but I already have a Linksys WRT54GL Router running DD-WRT providing my family with Internet. If I do decide to use it instead, I'm throwing away a wireless connection, and a 4 port switch. So I thought maybe one could combine the two.
Also maybe use it as a download manager and proxy http casher. Maybe collect data about the network usage. Stuff like that. (see who uses up all the internet :P)
The second idea was to set it up as a controller to open relays, adjust servos and experiment with that, (Most prob implement it into my Old VW Passat for some added features, or do some basic operations like lights around the house) but I have no idea how to set up hardware to communicate to a computer and open relays or send inputs to a OS. (Thou I'm not to lazy to learn).
So out of curiosity I was wondering what you would do with such an old PC if you had the time to play around...
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Here is some extra info about the hardware and myself that is optional to read...
About the Laptop:
No Battery anymore
It has infra red, 56k modem, slow CD-Rom, and 20GB HDD
Puppy 4.2.1 seems to run on it in live CD (thou booting takes forever)
Mothers Windows XP used only for Word, Excel, Gmail and Gtalk.
Brothers Windows 7 used for Ultimate Online Gaming!
My PC with Ubuntu 10.04 for a private PHP server, FTP server, browsing the web, whatever.
My HTC Touch Pro 2 to stay connected cheaper (Via wireless)
Neighbors PC to check mail (Via Wireless)
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Anyway, all replies/ideas are welcome.
Sorry for the long post. Thought ill give as much detail as possible. Maybe we can find a way to do something really cool.
In fact using a router before (and behind) a firewall is strongly recommended. A firewall is a device which has to be protected itself by forcing packages to be routed at least once between the recipient/originator and the firewall. This way IP spoofing is much more complicated (and most methods doomed to fail).
Generally all those puny packet filters which are sold as "personal firewalls" are no real firewalls at all and just give users a (misleading) sense of security.
I haven't used this particular product, I just picked it as being representative. I googled "analogue digital interface card".
About 20 years ago we used AD sensors to analyze acceleration, weight transfer and body lean in one of these.Van Diemen Motorsports
Seems like ill have to dig up another old computer... hehe. Do both.
bakunin, I heard you could install a antivirus on Unix that checks windows viruses. Dunno if this little processor can handle something like that thou...
Was wondering if this lil processor could handle the firewall with a squid proxy server and router. Coz this is what I understand would be a great setup...
Use the Routers built in firewall and set rules to rout everything to the firewall. The firewall will have two network cards, one going into the routers switch (Which would waiste the switch part) and the other going into another switch on which our network is connected. On that machine we have the firewall, behind that the squid proxy, and a Windows Anit Virus in there somewhere. Game ports would be opened to skip the proxy server so they can reach my brother's computer faster reducing lag. All other ports would be scanned for viruses and then cashed for later use (maybe).
Wireless would obviously not be able to run through the firewall as it is built into the router. Advanced routing settings should still be done on the router seeing that the firewall cannot connect to the modem directly.
Would this setup cause increase in lag? For my Gaming Lord brother would he realize the increase in lag? (im guessing all we have to do is forward the ports as directly as possible)
Most articles I could find is mainly based on larger networks for companies, not personal networks for normal families. heh.
Also seems like Redhat or Debian would be my best bet as a OS on the system? (where Redhat almost seems like the better bet)
Thanks for the advice so far. Really looking forward to setting this up.
Hmm, i don't know what you are talking about: there is an antivirus product based on Linux (that is: a bootable CD with a Live sysstem with some antivirus software), which is called Knoppix. You can freely download it, but it is not scanning online. It is designed to boot up a system from a non-compromisable source (CD) and scan it.
Probably you mean some firewall with so-called "stateful inspection". Basically it is decoding the datastreams it routes and allows/forbids certain things based on rules. While a normal firewall would, for instance, allow telnet sessions to a certain host a stateful-inspection firewall would be able to allow telnet to this host, but forbid a certain command to be issued.
Probably it would, because - depending on the amount of IP traffic - the tax on the processor is pretty small. Every firewall, btw., is already a router, since a firewall works on Layer 4, while a router works on Layer 3.
Have fun building this and be sure to tell us what finally worked and what you did to make it work.
