[TriLUG] Slightly OT: AOL Cable Broadband & Linux

[Andrew Perrin]

Folks,

My in-laws are moving into a new house in Carrboro, and they've asked me
to help with computer stuff. Their criteria are:
- Keep their AOL addresses;
- Let both of them be online at once;
- Have three computers on two floors share the internet connection, files,
	and the printer

My additional criterion is: 
- Do (some) administrative tasks remotely


What I would like to do is very much like what I have at home: a cable
modem into a cheap linux computer acting as a router with IPTables, with
a WAP providing wireless access to the three other computers, probably all
windows running VNC servers.

Question for y'all: has anyone used AOL's cable broadband service w/
linux? Any pitfalls I should beware of? 

Also: my plan is to use the linux box for the local routing both because
it's cool and because it will allow for some remote administration. Is
that stupid, i.e., should I just buy an out-of-the-box broadband router?

Thanks.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu