[TriLUG] Donations

[Thomas C. Meggs]

Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> Roy, correct me if I'm wrong, but one of those Linksys or Netgear
> cable/dsl routers with a four port switch would probably do the
> same thing as the portable firewall and you could probably just
> plug it in and go.  Actually, I believe they even have that with
> included wireless which would be even better because then we'd 
> just need the one box to do everything. :-)

The only thing that occurs to me about that is just the demonstration 
factor. If the NAT box you bring around to meetings and install fests 
actually runs Linux, it shows people the extent of what one can do with 
a free UNIX. From this perspective, it may be advantageous to have the 
portable firewall be an actual computer, which could also be a demo 
computer. One thing that comes to mind immediatly is to get one of the 
earlier models of the Shuttle XPC. They have a PCI slot and are nicely 
small and luggable. I imagine you could get the motherboard/case + PCI 
802.11b card for under $200, and finding a processor and disk from some 
of the PCs that are 'kicking around' without rack mount cases probably 
wouldn't be that hard as well.

At any rate, it's just a thought. Why buy a Netgear or Linksys 'router' 
when you can do it with Linux and have a machine ready to demo with as well?

Regards,
Tom