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You could do worse than take a look at http://www.clearfoundation.com/ and the community edition of ClearOS.

In my opinion it provides Cisco-like capability on any old PC you have lying around. That old PC almost certainly has more power and capability than any typical end-user-grade router in the $30 to $120 market.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with ClearFoundation except that of a user since 2003.

One desktop computer, add some extra drive and use this: http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html

You can replace that router with ClearOS, ClearCenter offers free Dynamic DNS with their free account registration.

Use Xampp or any turnkey local solution for starters and testing. From there i recommend ClearOs ( http://www.clearfoundation.com/ ) to run and experiment. If you need an even easier solution i'd say you go for hosted. There are tons of good virtual server or reseller deals if you want to have some freedom but even easier is a plain webhosting account. Still you should be prepared to do a lot of research and read some forums.

ClearOS is a great choice for what you're describing in terms of your needs of the OS and your abilities with linux.

Thanks - I found this blog post essential for understanding the project(s).

To summarize in one phrase: ClearOS Core ~= CentOS, but with an open development process. There are then additional add-ons also available for functionality that does not exist in RHEL or CentOS, under the ClearOS umbrella.

(correct me if that's wrong)

Feel free to join the ClearOS Core team. ClearFoundation produces the same specification on the code, has corporate backing, with open involvement from the community. We want you and are willing to listen and allow participation from everyone.

Feel free to join the ClearOS Core team. ClearFoundation produces the same specification on the code, has corporate backing, with open involvement from the community. We want you and are willing to listen and allow participation from everyone.

Another option is to use the old PII u have sitting in the garage and set up a ClearOS box. (previously knows as Clarkconnect) http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html Only takes a few minutes to set up, included linux firewall, web proxy report (great when u have teens at home), will handle the metering great plus give a ton of extra benefits.

You can download it here

Sorry that I'm posting AC, but I've modded on a good discussion.

There are other alternatives than configuring your own: Clear, formerly ClarkConnect; SME Server; and Zentyal to name a few.

I mixed up my own for a while, then switched to SME because my kids were growing up and seemed to want Winders on their computers. (My wife, also, and I didn't favor trying configure Samba.) I was looking for a couple of specific features that looked like they would never appear in SME, so I stayed up most of one night and migrated to E-box (now Zentyal). I've been specific about using only maildir and lots of backups, so migration wasn't an issue.

Best parts? I don't have to think about my ISP and e-mail storage, and many of the nitty-gritty configuration issues are cared for by people more knowledgeable than I. I don't think about spam: It's taken care of. My MTA is the same as is used in the stable release of Ubuntu, so I presume that it's taken care of. (There's also some IDS or another that sent me an e-mail that I fretted over, only to conclude that my server was fine.) My domain was blacklisted just once, while I was configuring things myself. There's a fourth problem that you imply: I let my ISP handle outgoing e-mails. The big sites don't like *dsl* that they get in the reverse lookup that they seem to do automatically. (I only ever had trouble with UCLA.)

The only thing that I don't like is that I've had to put a lot of trust in those who are configuring the distros that I've used. Seems to me that they're doing a better job than I do. Even when I switched from e-smith, it was only through a desire for addition features; otherwise, I was quite happy.

Consider ClearOS too. Both SME and ClearOS received top marks in the recent review by theregister.co.uk. It is not surprising, they share the same stable code heritage and with the release of Redhat 6 we can expect more goodies to trickle down. They also have a fairly good relationship together and share knowledge. For instance, the Windows 7 compatibility in SME 8 comes from contributions from developers on the ClearOS project. The new installer on ClearOS 6 (not yet in beta) comes from developers on the SME project.

This used to be clarkconnect, now it is clear os.

My firm is a pretty small shop, with everything running off ClearOS. It's a really fantastic server/middleware package with a great configuration, plus domain services, etc. Honestly, it can do everything you need, and you even have options (can use local clients, etc, or the well-configured horde/kerberos install). It's running CentOS so if you want to branch into more advanced stuff, then it's all there and relative simple (as simple as anything is with SELinux). They also offer a $1000 box with certified hardware in a blade profile which seems nice, but since we have an actual server I have no actual experience with it. As for the software, however, I recommend it highly.

As for what machines for your clients, it really depends on what they need. If you're small-scale, then thin clients aren't going to save you any money. My advice is to talk to your users/their managers and figure out how they work. Do they do work from home? Are they on-site at all? Do they have a lot of working meetings? In those cases, laptops would make sense. If not, desktops would be cheaper.

Have you taken a look at ClearOS?

I'm not running this but a friend is. He claims it CAN support WiFi and that it has served him well on Via X86 hardware. http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html From his description it's pretty good at blocking and handling traffic like a good firewall\IDS. Add in wireless and it just MIGHT serve the need. However he's not yet gotten wireless hardware on his to test so no personal experiences with that portion yet. He's running it on this -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856107055 but has no room for a PCI card and has been trying USB dongles with no success so far.

Something like that is what I'm most interested in. Yeah, it's another box to admin but it's powerful, has no issues with "flashing", no need for hardware hacking, and the features are limited only by hardware support, CPU, memory, and people's willingness to add them. As it stands now I do a little admin on my current router anyway and if an x86 box could be administered as easily I'd jump on it even if it does cost more than an Asus, Buffalo, Netgear, or Linksys device...

Thoughts? What would be good hardware for this? So far the problem has been finding a good hardware base - two GigE NIC, a good CPU, some room for expansion, and LOW power....

While I cannot imagine any one product will do all the things you mentioned as requirements, you might find most of the functions available in ClearOS (formerly known as ClarkConnect). You manage it primarily from a web-based interface which has pretty good granularity in terms of specific functions for specific users, and of course you can use the linux command line as well. These things are great for parking between the Intertubes and WinOS boxen, and I've been using them since 2003 for home and small business clients. Also, it will run on whatever ancient relic you have stashed in the basement computer graveyard. I have no connection with ClearOS other than as a user.

Not really... Basic Desktop support, and a more sophisticated gateway. Something like m0n0wall http://m0n0.ch/wall/ has very good access control with a voucher system, you user based control built in. It also has a very good traffic shaper so one kid downloading won't cause a fight with the other kid gaming. However, no web filtering.

Untangle http://www.untangle.com/ has some very good filtering on content and viruses, as well as some ads. The captive portal is not as strong, but getting there. No real traffic shaping last time I checked.

Both are open source projects. Monowall will run on any old P3 with 128 meg of ram. Untangle will need a bit more power behind it.

Good options. He could also try ClearOS. After it is set up it should be rather low maintenance. The download link is on the page. I have one at home and it is a win.

I would second the idea of looking into alfresco. I have not used it.
However, what it will do for you is that it will make sure that you can be using a common file system with revision control. So what would happen is that you would allow your users to network mount the alfresco filesystem across the firm. Users would read and save files to this filesystem. Anytime, it is saved, versions are created.

Alfresco Documents

Also, it does handle signatures with the plugin from http://www.viafirma.org/ (note, that is in spanish but works fine with google translate) http://viafirma.googlecode.com/svn/

Those saying stop working on this and hire people are thinking that you have a large firm. That is not really a great option.
What I would recommend is that you do setup single signon if you can.
The first start is to have an LDAP server.
ActiveDirectory does provide that. If you want to provide kerberos/active directory and ldap there are open source solutions.

• The way to technical solution is: http://freeipa.org/page/Samba_4_Installation
• Note: some of this can be done with: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/393283
• The no to technical solution might be: http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html

This is why i use ClearOS. It comes with Intrusion Prevention via Snort right out of the box. It proactively blocks failed SSH attempts and keeps my boxes off the lists happy and smiley!

I'm starting to install clearos because it supports dual-wan. I don't know how well it works yet. But it seems to be the first open source, free, project to support dual wan. I'm in a cybercafe in Sao Paulo, the connections here go down occasionally, so we have two ISP's. Have been looking for a dual-wan, fast router for a while. ClearOS used to be ClarkConnect, which had only a paid version. They restructured their economics and went open source.