On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 4:14 PM, Olwe Bottorff <galanolwe at yahoo.com> wrote: > > I've got friends (really) -- who want to use an old box as a router/firewall/file server at the business. I told them Linux can do this -- all-in-one. But I've never been a serious admin type. Am I right that one box with Linux can do these things? "Can" and "should" are two different things. Personally, I think the firewall/router should do those functions, and those functions only. I'd reccommend separate boxes for security and admin reasons. > They have a modem from their ISP patched into a Netgear Web Safe Router (RP614v3) and four Win boxes (2XP, Vista, Win7) plugged into the router. Could this router be deactivated and used as just a hub? Would file serving be done by Samba? You can probably disable the DHCP server and router and just use the onboard switch. Then again, why not keep using the firewall / router as is and build the linux box for filesharing only? Software wise, I like OpenWRT or IPcop for firewalling, and Openfiler for file sharing. Brian