[SunHELP] Configuration advice...

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: Marvin Cummings <MarvinC at gmail.com>
" 
" Thanks. With the exception of the 2nd private network this is is the
" setup I've been leaning towards implementing. I'd also like to know
" what's the mindeset on using either the Solaris or the Intel box as
" the firewall. I've heard some complain that Solaris on the Intel sucks
" in comparision to the Ultra Sparc. The HW for both are as follows:
" Sparc: 440mhz w/768MB RAM & 8GB harddrive
" Intel: PII 450mhz w/128MB RAM & 8GB harddrive
" 
" Me being a Windows guy and running ISA on a PIII 550mhz w/768MB of RAM
" and a 27GB harddrive I've always heard that you didn't need much to
" run a linux firewall. Is this the case with Sun? Will the PII suffice
" or should I use the Sparc? I'm thinking I'd like to use the minimum to
" get the firewall working and the other for Sendmail. Sendmail, again
" will front-end and relay to exchange.

no, a firewall doesn't need much hp.  i fully believe my current
system, a sparc2/weitek with a blazing -80- MHz and 128M ram running
s2.6 would handle fw/nat on 10M ethernet at wire speed.  current
loadavg is ~0.3 with all the crap i'm running - 82 procs, from init to
mailx...  i -have- seen the avg approaching 16 though.

i have rh9 running happily on a p2 of about 160MHz with 128M ram and
3G disk.  i think it would make an excellent firewall.

keep in mind, all that x-window eye candy takes a surprising load of
compute cycles.

here's a [not original] thought: a firewall with -no- hard drive.
boot from a customized cd that runs your firewall setup instead of
installing the os.  severely limits the damage an attacker can do even
if he does get in.  pretty hard to install a backdoor on a ro fs...
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought