Slashdot Mirror

I once worked in a military installation that had no cable/dsl and that was not a priority. Old unused hardware was plenty, so we downloaded BBIAgent, installed on a diskless (floppy) P100/32 and attached an external modem @ COM2. Worked flawlessly for a while, until the base commander decided to get of his @ss and ordered (finally!) cable. External modem was replaced by another NIC, some configuration changes, and the floppy router was again running.

My router http://www.bbiagent.net/ is floppy based, and the 486 it's in doesn't contain a HD, CDRom Drive or USB ports. Heck, it doesn't even have PCI slots (to add a USB hub) if I remember correctly.

Still got an old Laser 486 that I turned into a headless, diskless NAT box. Tossed in an old 486DX/2-66 CPU and 16MB of SIMMs that I had gathering dust. Pulled out the whopping 120MB HD and after I set it up with BBIAgent , I pulled the video card as well.

I got rid of my cable modem last year(too expensive), but the box is still here ready to go for next time.

Gotta love using old shit to do something useful. And yes, I'm too cheap to buy a hardware router ;)

BBIAgent requires nothing. Just go to the web page, fill in the info about your computer and network, and download a router. That's it.

I just tried out this floppy distro called BBIagent and it's pretty easy to setup (GPL too!). You configure it through a java window and it's much cooler then my old linksys box. I hate to say it but one of the cool features is a live graph of my incoming/outgoing. There's also way more features.

later,
ajay

PS. I'm not affiliated with them in anyway, blah blah blah...

http://www.bbiagent.net

Same thing as you describe but this one boots off a floppy disc..

I am not going to be sarcastic like most of the other responses to you. I will give you a true story. I recently hosed the startup of my new Gentoo box (don't know what I did, but that doesn't matter). I won't lie, I have a fair amount of experience with Linux (6 years), but I had no idea how to manually get a dhcp address on an interface so that I could connect to the BBIagent gateway that I had just installed to make Gentoo easier. In reality, it took me less than three minutes, reading a man page, typing two commands, and I was finished.
I love to play with my box at home, and while I don't touch any server configs outside of updating, I routinely mess up my home box. I can not count the number of times that I have brought it back from dead without anything like a reinstall. I gave up on Win98, but it seems like, with my children, I spent all my spare time reinstalling either the OS or myriad applications. Just my experience. It's probably not the same as yours.

There are several linux based routers that fit on a single 3.5" floppy. For the novice I'd recommend BBIagent.net.

Herbix : "Herbix is a Linux server that fits on a floppy. It supports ipchains and can serve FTP, HTTP, IRC, DHCP, SMTP, and IDENT."

Mike's Jukebox Distro : "Mike's Jukebox Distro is really just a floppy image that you add to a CD full of mp3's, using it as the El-Torito boot image. It has a complete Linux kernel and madplay, along with BusyBox. A simple shell script uses "find" to get a list of all mp3's on the CD, and it then plays each of them in order. tty3 is used for the player output, tty1, and tty2 have shells to allow the user to "play" while it's playing music."

RIMiRadio : "RIMiRadio is a floppy disk distro of Linux and an Icecast server."

floppyfw : "Floppyfw is a router and simple firewall on one single floppy. It uses Linux basic firewall capabilities, and has a very simple packaging system. It is perfect for masquerading and securing networks on ADSL and cable lines, using both static IP, DHCP, and PPPoE, and provides a simple installation, which usually involves editing of only one file on the floppy."

BBIagent Router : "BBIagent is a single floppy Linux-based router for sharing a broadband Internet connection. It also serves as a firewall to prohibit intruders from accessing your LAN. You can create your own BBIagent router software (a diskette file image) on our server based on your hardware configuration (NICs) and connection protocol (e.g. PPPoE, PPPoATM or DHCP). It is very easy to install and use."

Coyote Linux : "Coyote Linux is a single floppy distribution for people who have an Internet connection that they wish to share with other computers on a LAN. In addition to connection sharing, it also provides firewall services to help protect the internal network. The goal of the Coyote project is to make it as quick and easy as possible to share an Internet connection."

Tom's RootBoot : "rtbt is the most Linux on one floppy disk for rescue recovery panic and emergencies, contains tools to keep in your shirt pockets, is useful whenever you can't use a hard drive and contains about 100 rescue tools."

Pocket Linux : "Pocket Linux is an almost minimal, one floppy linux system designed to quickly convert PC workstation into secure linux-based workstation using ssh to connect to remote host (other networking clients are also supported). It supports bootp for determining host IP and other network parameters (there's also manual configuration possible, but bootp is recommended). In addition to workstations equipped with a network card (ethernet or arcnet), you can also use Pocket Linux on a PC equipped with a modem. Modem is automatically detected and then PPP connection is made."

Trinux : "Trinux is a minimal Linux distribution that boots from a single floppy or CD-ROM, loads its packages from an FTP/HTTP server, IDE filesystem, or additional floppies, and runs entirely in RAM. Trinux contains the latest versions of popular network security tools that can be used to conduct security research, analyze network traffic, and perform vulnerability testing."

Hopefully this list is helpful to those of you just starting to think about tiny distros.

I see all these posts on build it yourself, none of the suggestions seem all that easy...

You can get a first generation pentium now of any speed with ram the whole 9 yards for FREE. If you live in San Jose, I would be more than happy to let you have your choice from 10 boxes I got in the garage ranging from 486 to a P120. You come pick it up its that simple.

Next you need to add some network cards, the bay network netgears do the job nice and at $20 bucks a pop at fry's it wont hurt your pocketbook.

Finally some software to run it. I recomend BBIAgent It's small, runs on a floppy, and should do everything you need it to. Very slick web based setup and java based config utility.

As far as a hub/switch/cat5 cable, well that will still cost you money. I have a tangle of blue wire in the garage that looks like animal from the muppets if he were blue, you'd be more than welcome to help yourself.

Good Luck!
--Toq