foulis wrote: > Hi > > I'm looking to set up a home firewall and proxy server using an old laptop, > I have no experience doing this, but I want to learn network security and > about using BSD. Obviously I will need a second ethernet connection, but > would OpenBSD 4.4 be more likely to support a USB ethernet adapter, or a > PCMCIA ethernet card? > > I can't get hold of either to test so I need to buy a new one, which is why > I want to check which will be most likely to work.
you need a supported device, and you need to plug it into a supported interface. As you are saying, "old laptop", I'm guessing "USB1", which will be slower than a cardbus interface, but the likelihood of the USB port working is probably higher than the Cardbus interface (both are highly likely to work, but there are some PCMCIA and cardbus implementations which will give you headaches sometimes). On the other hand, for wired NICs, there is a lot more development taking place on USB network devices than there are for PCMCIA devices...so the possibility that you randomly pick up a USB device that the OpenBSD devs have never seen is much higher than it is for PCMCIA devices. If you get an incompatible device, it doesn't matter what your odds were...it doesn't work. If you can't test before you buy, your odds are far from perfect... If you are just starting out, I'd highly suggest you get an old desktop; you don't need to be fighting with hardware AND software at the same time. Once you know what you are doing, then migrate to your laptop, if you still wish to (be forewarned: the power savings of a laptop are usually assumed, not measured, and often smaller than people think.) Nick.
