I mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that I had just completed rebuilding my home network.
I had two primary design goals in mind – make it easier to manage, and reduce the equipment it takes to do it.
One of the first things I realized is that I didn’t need a dedicated Firewall computer, as much as I loved the software. It was always on, and always noisy. I could do better.
I ended up buying a Linksys WRT54GL for $60 from NewEgg. I put Tomato on it – an open source Linux-based firmware drop that does my Wireless, my router, and my Firewall – all on the Linksys Linux-based PC. And it does it very well (and easy to set up to boot).
So I spent about three hours, and I replaced three devices (router, firewall, WLAN) with one very small and very quiet device.
I owe Tomato a PayPal donation. My office is much quieter, I am consuming less power, and I am even better protected than before.
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