>>For cut down distros other chs are clark connect
>>(http://www.clarkconnect.org ) and e-smith (http://www.e-smith.org ).
>>clarkconnect has the advantage (some may say disadvantage) of being based
entirely on a cut down
>>redhat, with some custom packages added in. The corrollary is that you can
load any other redhat
>>package to extend the functionality. you can also up2date --update to
ensure all your packages
>>are - well - up to date!
>>haven't tested e-smith or smoothwall but I have recently downloaded both
and written to cd in
>>preparation for getting adsl at home.
I recently tried out e-smith server 4.1.2 and ran with it for about 3 weeks.
However, the weekend before last, I replaced it with a standard Redhat 7.1
distro (plus various updates). The main motivation for this was to move to a
2.4 kernel with FreeSwan IPSEC to support a VPN over my cable modem
connection.
Note that e-smith 4.1.2 is based on a Redhat 7.0 distro. Looking at the web
site, I notice that e-smith has been rebadged as SME Server V5 following
acquisition by Mitel.
The advantage of 'e-smith', for some, is that it is a turn-key server
solution you can install and have up and running in next to no time with
very little *nix knowledge. It offers most common services - including
masquerading firewall, apache web server, PHP, mysql, qmail mail package
(with smtp, pop3 and imap services), other common network services (ssh,
ftp, telent etc.), internal DNS, DHCP and Samba (to keep the windoze boxen
happy :) ) blah, blah blah. Oh and BTW, all of this ran perfectly well on a
box with only 32MB of RAM.
'e-smith' is ok if you just want a solution you can chuck in and leave
(providing it has the functionality you require of course). On the downside
(since I felt the need to play around), I found e-smith more difficult to
upgrade or customise than a standard distro. The e-smith 'management tools'
layer is template based and rewrites various config files from the templates
when you change configuration via the e-smith (web or console) based UI.
They do kindly provide a supported mechanism for inserting custom templates,
but this isn't as straightforward as editing standard Linux configs.
I hadn't heard of clarkconnect until I read Nick's post - after checking out
the web site, it looks like it would have been a better fit for my purposes
than e-smith. I like the fact that it's based on Redhat 7.1, firewall is
Netfilter/iptables based and it sounds like it's easier to update/customise
than e-smith.
Anyway, my Redhat 7.1 server/gateway (XFS file system, sendmail replaced by
qmail) has been up for just over a week and I'm happy for now and none of
the windoze boxen have complained that their PDC is powered by Linux :)
PS: If anyone want's to try out e-smith 4.1.2 I have a CD that's now surplus
to requirements .
