Old iron as a router. Choosing the Right Software for a Difficult Task

Question

linux

There is a computer of the "late 90s", the task is to turn it into a router. It would seem that this can close the topic with the postscript “take any Linux distribution”, if not for one “but”: it is necessary that the router has a friendly interface and is subject to configuration, regardless of the admin’s acquaintance with the *nix world.

Probably the ideal option is a web interface as in modern routers .

So, tell me, dear habravchane, either a web interface for any of the well-known Linux distributions, or even a ready-made customized distribution that could:

1. Serve as a router, that is, connect WAN and LAN. But the peculiarity of the task is such that the Internet through the WAN comes through two channels: Ethernet (main) and Wi-Fi (backup). And it also spreads over LAN through two channels: one more Ethernet and one more Wi-Fi. Needless to say, wired and wireless clients on the LAN must be on the same network (so as not to block additional routing in addition to the main one).

2. In addition, the router should also serve as a print server, sharing a printer connected to it for the LAN.

3. Considering the complexity of the above points, everyone is ashamed to stutter about something else, but still, if possible, let it be available to view statistics on connected clients (binding to MAC or IP), who pumped up how much, as well as the ability to adjust the priority of Internet distribution for each client (some more, some less). In addition, it is also highly desirable to view the status of both connections that look at the WAN (lies / works, what is the speed on it, what is the uptime)
3.1. As a small addition to the previous point: let the logs and error messages be as clear as possible and easy to retrieve.

Let me remind you that, unfortunately, all this must be available without a console (or with minimal use of it), only through a web interface.

Is this possible, or has link-building progress not yet reached such a point?

Answer 1

I only met webmin , but it seems to me that he can’t steer two channels, and he doesn’t fit into the 3rd paragraph either.
unambiguously to you from distribution kits to put debian.
once let the admin set up this router for you, and then he will do everything himself.

Answer 2

Even if you find a friendly distro with software, two problems will stop you:
1) It is noisy (not always, but usually)
2) It consumes a lot of electricity.
3) It is not reliable, because old iron may be already at the limit. Screw - exactly.

Answer 3

microtic has an implementation for PC architecture

Answer 4

I'm afraid that it will take a lot of time to create such a router under linux. If I can advise you to use IDECO for home use, don't take it as an advertisement.
ideco-software.ru/products/free_editions.html
A very handy thing for the home, especially with regard to the described functionality.

Answer 5

ClearOS does it all. Excellent thing.
The third point is with passing through a proxy, really. If you use the regular function of the solution. And so there is practically CentOS, put any packages.

Answer 6

monowall will suit you, though it's on fribsd, but it's nice.

Answer 7

Make yourself an openwrt build for x86. My psld assembly showed that
1) it takes up no more than 32 meters
of space 2) it eats 10mb of memory with the modules I need.
As a result, you will get a fast, stable system with web-based control like on a router.

Answer 8

I agree with icCE, I have a fourth stump on the andresol as a router, I put an almost silent PSU and a cooler on the processor there, you can’t hear it even if you don’t listen. Well, yes, and there is an open-wrt, though a friend set it up for me, I wouldn’t have done it myself. I don’t know about electricity consumption, I always have huge electricity bills ...

Answer 9

Alternatively, try Smoothwall . The web interface is immediately included in the kit, at one time it worked stably for 2 years, until it replaced the first stump with a more modern machine with an ubuntu server on board. Also a bunch of already assembled packages for every taste. The only negative in the 2nd version was too detailed logging by default (the developers are obviously paranoid, since the entire tcpdump was recorded, including :) ) and the screw was quickly clogged with gigabyte logs. But now I hope they should have been fixed, and you can turn it off.

Answer 10

Look towards pfsense
wiki.lissyara.su/wiki/PFSense

Answer 11

I installed pfSense on different x86-compatible pieces of hardware (mostly they were embedded like pc-engines and so on).
It is precisely this configuration that is at home, since in modern routers something always did not suit.
www.pfsense.org/

Answer 12

While you're waiting for an OpenWRT build, you should probably give SMS Linux a try . This is essentially a dictionary for weak machines with network services + Webmin.

Answer 13

Once I chose here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_router_or_firewall_distributions
I settled on ClearOS and Mikrotik.