Michael Havens wrote:
> My dad got a new laptop (toshiba satelite)because his hd (?) died. BIOS loads 
> and then it says:
>  	'Load Error! 
> 	'Press a key to reboot.'
> The HD ia an HTS424040m9at00-(pm).

That'd be a Hitachi IDE (parallel ATA) drive.
(http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/4k40/4k40.htm)

What model is the laptop?  There is a sticker on the bottom, usually.

> Anyone have anything that will work? Does 
> this sound like a symptom of a failed hard drive?

Yes.  Or a bad cable or connection.  Or a bad IDE controller.  Or a bad
something else.  In other words, your error indicates that the computer
cannot load the OS but not why it can't.

> Along those same lines it 
> looks as if I now have a firewall as the laptop is now mine.

Sweet!  Nice Dad.

> Which distro is 
> designed for being a firewall?

All of them have a firewall.  You mean which is designed to be a
firewall appliance or dedicated as a firewall.

> What do you recommend?

Depends what you want.
- http://ipcop.org
- http://smoothwall.org
- http://clarkconnect.com
- http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=firewalls

> Should I get a wireless 
> card for the tower or a wireless router? If I get the router will I need the 
> old comnputer to use as a firewall or not..... hmmmmm.... do I even need a 
> firewall?

First concentrate on "What" not "How"  What do you want your network to
do for you?  What do you want that you don't currently have?  Then
research for how you can build or get that.

Alan