hardware for linux gateway (open)

Message

alexluna · Post by **alexluna** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:52 pm

Hello everybody.

I have been wondering what is the minimun requiremets for build a gateway for a company that have 250 users.

anybody?

think4urs11 · Post by **think4urs11** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:05 am

some more details needed

- bandwidth of internet connection
- type of usage (browsing only, streaming, email, IRC/IM, ...)
- estimated number of concurrent users
- DMZ yes/no (if yes what kind/number of servers in DMZ)
- type of users (web workers, mostly office work, ...)
- VPN functionality needed
- ....

Shall the GW only provide firewall/NAT functionality (means layer 3+4) or proxy functionality (layer 7)?
Is high availabity/load balancing needed?
What 'level of paranoia' needs to be served? (low paranoia - one box for all, hi paranoia - x boxes)

In most easy case something like a Soekris/Alix might already be enough (firewall/NAT only, <=10MBit ISP connection max., low number of concurrent sessions, ...).

alexluna · Post by **alexluna** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:20 am

the gateway will be used just for a proxy and firewall.

the users just need to browse around the web.

think4urs11 · Post by **think4urs11** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:43 am

'rule of thumb'-calc

Pentium 4 1GHz+ or better is sufficent
>=1GB RAM (needed for proxy mainly)
>=80GB HD (proxy cache)
2 NIC's (one internal, one facing towards ISP)
Squid as proxy, iptables for the FW part

should give a nice system with decent speed
If you want additional content filtering (Dansguardian or alike) take a faster proc (2Ghz+ at least) and some more RAM.