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Holy shit, don't tell me people still us Windows for network critical systems, even in a home environment...

If that computer isn't a dedicated machine already, then buy one from ebay, go for the $50 maximum range in <300Mhz (An old 486 should be enough).
Aside from CPU, RAM (16MB minimum), it needs a 3.5-floppy-drive, a network card for your internal network and whatever for the connection (a second network card if you're using ADSL for example). Then go and use Fli4L, easy to setup, boots off a floppy and is damn reliable.

Like many others said: Get a cheap "internet router" that does NAT (Network Address Translation). If the attackers can't get to the fresh XP machine, they can't kill it. Easy, isn't it? Just turn OFF UPNP support and all DMZ / port forwarding stuff on the router.

If you still have a spare PC (minimum 486SX-25, 8 MB RAM, Floppy, two ethernet cards), give fli4l (or any other small Linux router software) a try. Download size is a few MBytes (ask your friends / neighboors), complete boot floppy is created within a few minutes on any Windows system. No linux knowledge required.

Keep the NAT router between the XP machine and your internet connection even after you have completed the XP setup. Though the router may not help against using IE and Outlook, it will help against all TCP and UDP based attacks. All viri and worms that spread by connecting to any TCP or UDP port on your machine will fail to infect your machine thanks to the NAT router.

Tux2000

Today you can get outdated hardware already for free, i.e a Pentium-II PC. It's not much use as an Desktop computer any more but as a low-cost router for small businesses or apartment-sharing communities it's a good option. Since there are well documented Linux-based projects like fli4l the setup isn't just 'for geeks only' anymore.

Hmmm... $220 for a router that I'd have to spend hours squeezing an OS into and configuring from scratch, or $60 for a home router that include 802.11b, and most of the basic settings preconfigured for me. Gosh, that's a difficult choice. Configuring things from scratch is fun and all, but it's not really $160 worth of fun, especially when I'd likely end up with a product with fewer functions than I have right now.

2 network cards, a USB Wireless Access Point, and a 4-port switch (or more, if you prefer), that old Pentium piece of shit laying in the back, and fli4l.

That's not so easy. KLEZ did that already. Other variants searched your network and infected MP3 files and MS Office files, everything that was writeable.

Many companies are not going to switch because they are locked in. They have three or four years worth of expertise, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in applications, and their users are used to Windows. No matter how often it breaks (and most people assume it's "normal" for a computer network to totally crash once a week at least), they will continue to use this stuff, until

• their killer apps are available for other platforms (which often not only means groupware, but also specialized apps for niche markets)
• somebody bribes the descision maker more than MS does.

Upgrade to Linux: ?300'000 in education, ?10'000 in licenses
Upgrade to Windows: ?200'000 in education, ?200'000 in licenses, ?400'000 in necessary hardware upgrades

The ?10'000 for Linux was for commercial products (I think databases) which eased the switch, and support by SuSE. Education was mostly needed for the admins. The users were desktop users that only needed their "office" and "email" and "browser" buttons and not much more.

Of course, they decided for Linux (provided by IBM and SuSE). Only, very strangely, a Microsoft representative visited them shortly after this descision was made. And half a year later they suddenly had switched to Windows 2000 and nobody had noticed. Another couple months later, the Schleswig-Holstein IT representative - the guy who had decided for Windows despite the horrendous costs - unexpectedly left the facilities.

Business works with money. And if you cannot convince somebody with a better product, you can often convince them with bribery - and you don't even need to call it that. Rumour has it that Intel (or was it Compaq?) only accepted the "early adopter program" for Windows 2003 for their publicly visible servers because Microsoft agreed to pay all their hardware upgrades AND the admins.

Another important point is that Windows users are "used to things not working". At my GF's house there are altogether 12 PCs and laptops (and two Macs) wirelessly LAN'ed together with an Airport router. The router is a WIn98 machine with some kind of LAN software. IT crashes about thrice a day. I wanted to put fli4l on it and show Linux to my GF, but she doesn't want it - yet, because she doesn't know what to do if things break. Rebooting XP a couple times a day and reinstalling printer drivers because XP forgets them maybe once a week is apparently "normal" for her, and I don't blame her, that seems to be the accepted procedure with computers for many people.

... just try FLI4L (english page, there is also a german page). It is a modular router that can be extended to provide ISDN, DSL, Modem, and many, many more features listed on the web page. A simple ISDN/DSL router with port filtering ("firewall") fits on a floppy, with more features, you may need more room. You can get modules to install fli4l on a harddisk (or compact flash or IDE flash), other modules support booting from CDROM. With etherboot, you can also boot from a TFTP server.

I run fli4l since years on my router (some old 100 MHz Pentium clone made by AMD), the last modification was to replace the old HDD with a 64 MBytes IDE flash module (made by Transcend) -- 60 MBytes are still free.

Now, there are only three moving (i.e. noisy) parts left: one floppy for updates, CPU fan and PSU fan. The floppy will soon be replaced by an etherboot EEPROM on the internal ethernet card, set to boot from local drives by default. The CPU fan will be replaced by a larger heat sink, and the PSU will be replaced with a fan-less PSU.

... just try FLI4L (english page, there is also a german page). It is a modular router that can be extended to provide ISDN, DSL, Modem, and many, many more features listed on the web page. A simple ISDN/DSL router with port filtering ("firewall") fits on a floppy, with more features, you may need more room. You can get modules to install fli4l on a harddisk (or compact flash or IDE flash), other modules support booting from CDROM. With etherboot, you can also boot from a TFTP server.

I run fli4l since years on my router (some old 100 MHz Pentium clone made by AMD), the last modification was to replace the old HDD with a 64 MBytes IDE flash module (made by Transcend) -- 60 MBytes are still free.

Now, there are only three moving (i.e. noisy) parts left: one floppy for updates, CPU fan and PSU fan. The floppy will soon be replaced by an etherboot EEPROM on the internal ethernet card, set to boot from local drives by default. The CPU fan will be replaced by a larger heat sink, and the PSU will be replaced with a fan-less PSU.

The "on(e)-disk-router" fli4l is using the 2.2.22 (nice version!) kernel. I think the 2.4.X kernel would be just too big and you really don't need USB support for a 60 MHz Pentium router with a floppy-disk only!

Thus you have:

1. a frequency splitter
2. an ISDN box (only if you want ISDN; nowadays POTS supports caller-ID and stuff too)
3. the DSL Modem which connects to
   • an ethernet port in your PC or
   • (preferrably) your router/firewall

There are combination "Router/Firewall/Switch" Boxes that allow for easy setup of a home LAN (prices vary, some need a separate DSL modem, others have a built-in one and connect directly to the splitter).

Personally, i have an old-style Telekom-issue DSL modem (can be had on german ebay) and a linux-based router built from spare parts.

fli4l plus OPT_BOOTCD. You may also want to read one of the HOWTOs fli4l auf CDR or isofli4l.

fli4l is a german language project, but fli4l itself has also an english documentation.

fli4l plus OPT_BOOTCD. You may also want to read one of the HOWTOs fli4l auf CDR or isofli4l.

fli4l is a german language project, but fli4l itself has also an english documentation.

fli4l plus OPT_BOOTCD. You may also want to read one of the HOWTOs fli4l auf CDR or isofli4l.

fli4l is a german language project, but fli4l itself has also an english documentation.

You might already know this, but there is a really good one-disk-router/firewall around: Fli4l.

There is a side-project of the fli4l developers called Eisfair, which aims to become a "one-disk-server". It is still very Beta and not ready for everyday server-use, but it's the most extensible mini-distro around.

In this context fli4l should be mentioned. It's an amzing single-floppy distribution and while primarily targeting on router/firewall tasks it is very extensible. The reason it is not so very well known is probably the fact that most of it's documentation is in German. But it's definitely worth a look. Also check this.

In this context fli4l should be mentioned. It's an amzing single-floppy distribution and while primarily targeting on router/firewall tasks it is very extensible. The reason it is not so very well known is probably the fact that most of it's documentation is in German. But it's definitely worth a look. Also check this.

I'm a slave of the German Telekom and its online-sevice T-Online. They offer T-DSL, 768kbit down - 128 kbit up, and I'm really happy with it. My Connection is always fast ans stable, it works great with Fli4l and it costs just 30 EUR.

I stopped reading when the author started talking wbout integrating the telephone with a home computer. I know a number of people who tried this years ago, but all are now using standalone answering machines or telco answering services.

this here is a really sweet small power supply for 15-20 volt input. 45 watt output, really small really cheap (under $2) with all connectors you need for a small pc. i used it for building a small and SILENT linux router with the fli4l router linux distribution. works flawlessly.

I don't know if someone said that already, but there's a very cool german linux-router project (xDSL/ISDN) focused around: fli4l
From fli4l.de:
"Fli4l is a single floppy Linux-based ISDN, DSL and Ethernet-Router. You can build it from an old 486 based pc with 16 megabyte memory, which is more than adequate for this purpose. The necessary boot-disk can be built under Unix, Linux or Windows. You don't need any specific Linux-knowledge, but this would be useful. You should have some basic knowledge about networking, TCP/IP, DNS and routing though. For extensions and further development, that exceed the standard configuration, you need a working Linux-system and Unix/Linux knowledge."
Personally I use it as a DSL Router for my 2 PCs and it works great: F***in fast, secure and easy. If you want a ISDN/DSL Router check it out., otherwise LinuxRouter ist the better choice.
X

There's another good looking project like this at
http://www.fli4l.de/e_index.htm