> > > Good point! I suppose the only drawback is if > > a) the IP cop box is needed for something else and ipcop is removed > > It's dead easy to put back again :-) In its default form but I've added DG and customised some of the pages to make editing the config files easier. The problem would be if I needed the ip cop box for something that then needed internet access to complete the install. It would be less hassle to move a UTP cable than rebuild a PC with the PCI card in. > > > b) the ip cop box falls over > > Not happened yet to me (save for a disc drive going down) Not happened here either though we did have a couple of days where the IPCop box was out of service because a mouse had crawled in the back and died near the cpu and then started rotting/cooking with the fans blowing the smell round the office. It took us a while (about a week! eeek!) to work out where the smell was coming from. The PC was rebuilt in a new case. Foretunatley the mouse didn't die on anything that wasn't case so all teh electronics were just transferred. > > > or > > c) does not offer some service (or blocks some service) that > > the external router modem does offer and which would allow an > > easy ipcop bypass by rewiring (although this again could be > > an issue if I implement DANS Guardian to protect the family). > > Not found that yet either. Also, from the IPCop DansGuardian > installation notes: > > How do I stop filtering? > ------------------------ > > If you want to have unfiltered access to the Internet, bypassing > DansGuardian, you can add the IP number of individual workstations or > servers to the etc/dansguardian/exceptioniplist file. More explanation > can be found in the exceptioniplist file. > Strangley my PC isn't filtered either. However I do like tinkering with IPCop and have tinkered it until it stopped working. If I had an internal modem then I wouldn't be able to get on the net to see how to fix it, it would be a case of reinstall. * > Personally, I've run WinMX, Kazaa, MSN Gaming (Flightsim sessions etc) > on my XP machine, run Courier-MTA for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP on my Linux > box as well as a web server. I don't have Dans yet, but that will come > as soon as Junior finds out that there's more to the PC and > web browsing > than the four shortcut buttons on his taskbar (Cbeebies, Enjie-Benjy, > SaveUms and NickJr!) > If you use XP for the little ones you can install we-blocker (http://www.we-blocker.com/) as that seems a good way of stopping nasties too. It works on a log in basis so you can still get at all the nasties you want. Nasty sites are updated by all those using the software who can add new sites as they find them and then their banned sites get shared. You can also unban sites should you so wish too. This works on a user by user basis unlike DG which is all or nothing. For DG there is a really good easy to install IPCop Addins manager listed on the IPCop site which takes all the hassle out of installing add ins. Its as easy as the patching is. Only used it once but all went smoothly and was a lot less involved than installing DG manually (which wasn't difficult just . Chris For those that like tinkering too you may find this CD useful: I've just downloaded the system rescue cdrom (from sysresccd.org) which I'm going to use to repartition my ip cop box and then copy the main partitions to partition images so that when it goes pear shaped I can just restore an image of the partition I created before I made the changes. Might not be the most efficient way but it means I get to test the System Rescue CD too. Good thing is it works with NTFS (if it will create an image it can restore it although it can have problems creating some images) and you can mount NTFS filesystems as R/W so you can fix those pesky non booting windows boxes. You do need a copy of the XP version of NTFS.sys (or similar but its all included in the manual! --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.742 / Virus Database: 495 - Release Date: 19/08/2004
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>