Subject: RE: NetBSD-i386 as a firewall/print server
To: Steven Grunza <steven_grunza@ieee.org>
From: Scott Horton <bighorton@home.com>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 01/24/2001 19:47:59
I'm looking to setup an old i386 with a bunch of RAM (about 16M or so),
a 1.4 MB floppy drive, and a pair of Ethernet cards.
The purpose of this machine is to:
1) act as a firewall between my nephews' ADSL provider (who gives out
dynamic addresses)
2) act as a print server using Samba
>=>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> snip <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
I'll leave out the comments about trying to build this on a floppy, I think
others have covered that sufficiently... Although I *do* believe that it
could be done if all you wanted was the firewall... Might take two floppy
drives though. As a printserver would be rough due to spooling.
I'm actually planning to do something almost exactly like this:
I aquired a little Vax recently, and a DEC LN03 laser printer, both of which
were in practically perfect condition. I got a full maintenance kit and
enough toner to keep the printer running for years. Naturally nothing in
the PeeCee world will touch that printer with a ten foot pole. So - my big
plan: I'm going to put NetBSD on the Vax, use Samba to create a shared
network printer on my Windoze network, then use Ghostscript (which does
support the LN03) to preprocess the jobs coming in through Samba to the
printer. Voi-la! One postscript laser printer! Compatible with
everything!
That's the plan anyway...
The Vax has a pair (!) of 100Mb SCSI drives builtin, but it only provides
for a single ethernet port, or I'd be setting it up as my firewall as
well... :)
I don't know if NetBSD provides appletalk support, but if it doesn't, I
think you can get a chooser utility that will allow you to print to a Unix
host, or something similar.
Anyway - I was intrigued to see someone else planning something like what I
had in mind, and had to drop my $.02 in...
Talkatchalatah!
Scott