Is it possible to repurpose an old computer as a firewall+antivirus, scanning everything before it gets into my network?

Edited May 2, 200620 yr by Gouki

Firewall = Yes.

Antivirus = No

Take a look at SmoothWall. It is a very good firewall implementation.

what is it? and are you sure antivirus would be impossible?

It is a very good firewall implementation.

What do you mean 'What is it?' ?

Having a central AV server is possible, but what kind of computer are we talking about?

what I meant is is it an os with great security designed as a hardware firewall, or a firewall to install over an os

just normal pcs, so it scans data as it passes from my modem to my router

smoothwall is basically a version of linux with all the required components to turn the pc into a firewall. it is not something you install on an already installed OS.

ok, and how about av, I know it was stated to be impossible, I am just making sure

Antivirus companies have them, they're dedicated virusscanning servers. You'd need special software for that though.

ok, and how about av, I know it was stated to be impossible, I am just making sure

You never heard me saying it was impossible, in fact, I said it *was* possible.

EDIT: Plugin for SmoothWall

Edited May 3, 200620 yr by Gouki

http://www.clarkconnect.com/

antivirus, antispam, firewall, intrusion prevention. There is a FREE version.

Requirements @ http://www.clarkconnect.com/info/requirements.php

Edited May 3, 200620 yr by jago_lfn

http://www.clarkconnect.com/

antivirus, antispam, firewall, intrusion prevention. There is a FREE version.

Requirements @ http://www.clarkconnect.com/info/requirements.php

Good find!

Have you tried it? If so, what do you think about it?

I've used it since 1.3 i believe. Ran it for a few years on an old K6-233 with 64MB ram and a 80 gig drive, no probs whatsoever. Makes for an easy to config and reliable server/gateway. Very easy to set up and samba works like a dream for file sharing. Only bad thing is it doesnt support dial up modems.

Looks pretty good. I'll definitely give it a try.

wow, that looks awesome, again, is it an os, or a program that runs on top of an os?