OLD PC to HARWARE FIREWALL

I use SecureBSD as a DMZ box with hardware firewalls before and after it but this looks interesting and relatively simple.

Anyone have any stories to relate about it?

well im gonna try this.. i have a good stock of discareded old PC's

Well, I also thought on using an old PC just for that, but then it came to me that, having another PC sucking on all that power just to be a software firewall, that it's not worth it, not to mention more noise from that PC.

If this firewall is going to protect a server it will have to be on 24/7 just like the server, after a year, imagine the ammount of power you would have spent, in relation to having a dedicated hardware firewall, that could also do other things you need, DSL modem, 4/8 or more ports hub, wireless and it's a great firewall, alot better than the software one, and this small box, only consumes 10/20% of what a whole PC does, with that saving you could go on holliday or something.

You may think that because Linux and Smoothwall are free, you are saving, but a year down the road you would have spent more on electricity to feed this PC, that you could have bought a dedicated firewall in the first place, which is a much better firewall solution.

I think it's not a good idea, that's why I discarded it, of course if this PC is going to be doing other things, then it might be worth considering, otherwise, stick with a dedicated hardware firewall, nothing beats that.

Of-course I have to calculate the pros and cons of something like this.

I managed to get some numbers for you to digest:

87 watts/hour x 24 hours/day x 365 days/year = over £100 in London/UK

That's what you pay per year, and that's just the computer, not the monitor (if we include the monitor, the price gets ridiculous), now say you buy a dedicated hardware firewall, that will do a much better (you can't even compare) job, say a modest NetGear FR114P firewall, that's also a Cable/DSL modem, 4 port hub and a print server thrown in just for good measure, it costs around £65, and consumes under 5 watts.

After the first year running your old PC firewall, that don't do the same great job as a hardware firewall, you would be loosing already and you didn't even bought anything, just electricity bill.

One year down the road, you then decide to buy a hardware firewall, then you have spent £100 already on electricity plus another £100 on the new harware firewall, sorry but the numbers just don't add up.

Remember: It's your money, but it's our planet.

Edited by theSCIENTIST - 31 July 2005 at 11:51am