I’ve been building my own routers for a while now. Previously I’ve mainly used IPCop but recently I heard about Endian Firewall and really liked all the extra features it was boasting. So I tried it out, really liked it and started marketing it rather than IPCop to customers. I’ve built a couple of these now and they really run great. They’ve completely killed spam on the networks, stop all the secretaries and their various chat programs, have vpn capabilities, Sip quality of service, etc. Pretty much the ultimate small business/home router. The best part is they are super easy to manage. The install is nearly identical to that of IPCop, the menu has improved over IPCop, the only downside is the need for a beefier machine. From what I’ve seen you need at least a 500mhz, 256 mb memory, and a 10 gb harddrive. The one’s I’ve built are 1 Ghz, 256mb memory, and 40 gb harddrives (only because it was the smallest/cheapest I could find to use). I think the processor is plently but it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a little more memory in the future. Most of you are probably thinking thats hardly any machine at all but I’ve had IPCop running great on 100 mhz system with 64 mb of memory so in relation it is quite a difference. The mini-itx form factor is everwhere now and this Phylon 7F2WE-1G (aka jetway J7F2WE-1G)is a perfect match for a small router pc with it’s capability to handle up to 4 nics.


Endian Firewall does an excellent job and if that spare machine you have laying around can handle it, give it a try, I think you’ll be pleasently surprised at just how much better it will do that your linksys wrt54g, just convert it into an access point instead.