Which firewall to get ?
 

Should I get the Cisco PIX 501for 30 bucks or the Alpha Shield AS-001 for 20 ?

I'm not sure how much it would differ compared to a modern-day consumer router, but I guess it depends on what you plan to use it for.

The Alpha Shield definitely doesn't do anything more than a basic router that you could buy at Future Shop would do. It has NAT and SPI which any consumer model router of 2011/2012 will have.

The Cisco does provide you with VPN capabilities which most consumer routers don't have by default, but if you get a model that runs Tomato or DD-WRT, running OpenVPN is quite easy.

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with either. If you HAD to chose, go with the Cisco although it will take some Cisco knowledge to configure properly. It's definitely not a beginners device.

Buy a cheap router and call it a day. The more in between the more complications.

I have a WRT54GL with tomato does the job. I actually wanted to get a firewall to play with it and for the price I think what the hell :biggrin:

So, in the end this will be a waste of time and resources ?

your better off finding a old 486 and trying pfsense

I have an old P4 that I don't use down in the basement, but the case is bigger than a firewall and it takes up space. I might try to do that though, since it won't cost me anything except an Internet/LAN cable ?

Now that I remember, I could put it on the external HDD, no ?

Yeah, pfSense will run off a USB stick even. As long as the computer's BIOS can boot from it, you can run pfSense from it.

Just need 2 NIC's and you're good to go.

Neither of those listed are true firewalls anyways. You wouldn't gain much knowledge/experience IMO. Absolutely 0 with the Alpha Shield as it has no configuration.

Yeah, I saw that from the pics on the net. Thanks for the input guys, I think I'll also give OpenVPN a try when I get home. Seems easy to install.

the thing with building a firewall is that it actually doesn't need a case you could put inside of an old case box or even mount it on plywood then mount th ta on a wall like a picture ( which is what I have always wanted to do lol)

I'd rather run it from my external hdd. My room is rather small and adding another tower in the room + dust and all that stuff...meh