[plug] E-Smith and server setup - comments?

[Steve Grasso]

Nathan,

On Monday 06 August 2001 11:01, Nathan D wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have toyed with linux on and off over the years and have been very happy
> since replacing my Win95/NAT box with SmoothWall.  (Some will say SW is
> limited in use, but it is a firewall only and for that is works great). 

Terrific!

> My next step now is to have a login/mail/games/etc server for my little
> network.  From what I have read E-smith seems to be a popular "already
> rolled" solution.  Any comments on pros and cons?

Some Pros:

- Pretty easy to install and configure
- Defaults are sane
- Good doco and mailing-list support, paid support available if you need it
- Has all the services most SOHO users will need available straight out of 
the box with minimal need for fiddling (DHCP, Samba, Netatalk, 
packet-filtering firewall/gateway, proxy services etc etc)
- Web-based or shell-based admin
- Pretty much self-healing

Some Cons:

- Integrating Non-Standard (TM) stuff with the e-smith distro is not as 
straight forward as for other distros

> Some documentation I have read refers to having a network setup so all
> traffic travels in/out of the firewall, then thru the server, and then to
> the rest of the internal network.  Is such a requirement necessary for a
> small home network?

Nope. The e-smith machine will act as gateway and file/print/email/etc server 
if that's what you want and the machine specs allow it.

> I am setting up a machine for my son and am wondering about some sort of
> internet access control ie certain times only, or being able to isolate if
> required?  

Use cron to pull the PPP or PPPOE link up/down at the times required.

Presumably I would have to use the firewall -> server -> network
> setup as mentioned above to have this control?

Nope. See above.

HTH
Steve