(Just joined the list and thought I'd answer this one -- hi everyone). Marcus Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've got an old laptop (Pentium 133, 16 MB RAM, 2x pcmcia-slot, > cd-rom, 1 GB Harddisk) and want to use it as a Router with Linux > and my Orinoco Gold card. I read almost all of the doc's available, > and I'm sure, that I'll get it working. But my problem is, that most > Linux-distos (which I know) don't run on such an old piece of > hardware. > So what distribution would you recommend for doing so?
If you only intend to use the machine for a router/firewall/NAP, check out the LEAF project (Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall) at http://leaf.sourceforge.net/, especially the Bering release. Bering fits a 2.4.x/iptables-based firewall/router onto a single floppy disk. The base configuration is pretty functional as-is, but if necessary you can add any number of LRP (Linux Router Project) packages on separate floppies, CDs, or a hard disk. Modules include PCMCIA, IPsec, SSH, PPTP, PPoE, wireless support, SSH, and much more. > And are there maybe any distros, which have everything included, > to use wireless lan? LEAF/Bering should be able to do everything you want a router/firewall/NAP to do. Another interesting option is FreeSCO ("a free replacement for commercial routers supporting up to 3 ethernet/arcnet/token_ring/arlan network cards and up to 2 modems." -- "runs in as little as 6 Mb RAM") at http://www.freesco.org/. FreeSCO, while quite cool, doesn't support PCMCIA or wireless out of the box -- it can be done, but while take a little work. If you want end-user support as well, you could look at Peanut Linux (http://www.ibiblio.org/peanut/) and Vector Linux (http://www.ibiblio.org/vectorlinux/), two distributions geared specifically to limited hardware environments. They're both very end-user-oriented, though, so you'd have to go through the usual hardening and firewall setup process as with most other Linux distributions. Also, check out http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ and http://www.distrowatch.com/ for detailed Linux distribution information. Hope this helps. - John -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
