----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Mandato" To: Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 12:07 AM Subject: Re: Slackware > I have been following this thread with great interest. My knowledge of > *nix is rather limited. I did take some unix admin courses at the local > community colleges --- and they both used Red Hat. Red Hat is the most commercially successful distro - it makes sense to learn it. > I just wonder if it is possible for someone with limited knowledge to > do a gentoo install and compile the whole thing. I am not sure how well documented Gentoo is - I bought a book called Linux Unleashed (long out of print) that came with a Slackware distro (3.0, maybe?). It was a wonderful (albeit painful) learning experience. You might consider buying one of the books that comes with a distro at your local geek bookstore or from Amazon. This one (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0672325888/qid=1058160275/sr= -1/ref=sr__1_etk-books/102-3708429-0762516?v=glance&s=books&n=283155) comes with RH9, and I know for sure that RH 9 plays nice with two NICs right out of the box. This one (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764539906/ref=pd_sim_books_1 /102-3708429-0762516?v=glance&s=books) is written by John "maddog" Hall and he is a Linux legend. > Now, I do have a spare machine, but it only has a 100mh Pentium and 40 > mb ram, so from what I read it would take a few days to get the system > up and running. I do have the time, though. It depends on what your time is worth. I would go nuts on a machine that slow. > Oh, I would use that machine basically as a firewall/router. RH 7.3 > has problem detecting both nic cards, 1 an ISA the other PCI. Get RH 9 - it should work better. > Presently I am using my computer as the firewall/router, but I need > more felxibility with it. When I shut mine down, my home network is also > down. Get one of those cheapie $69.00 broadband routers and beat on your PC freely without interrupting other users. Thomas