Mike, SLUG is
http://www.svecc.com/SLUG.htm which is a member of the East
Valley Association of Linux User Groups which got started around a year ago
with assistance from PLUG. We are mostly retired people who use or play
with computers.
On 12/20/06, Craig White <
craig@tobyhouse.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2006-12-20 at 10:37 -0700, Dazed_75 wrote:
> > WOW, thanks for all the input. Frankly most of the replies violate
> > the first criteria since most seem to require an always on computer
> > system (and while a router such as a Linksys WRT54 really is a
> > computer, I do not count it for that criteria). And the only solution
> > I still see is the one of using a router with dnsmasq. For example by
> > using open-wrt on any of the supported routers such as the wrt54gl
> > (not the model I currently have).
> >
> > I am not sure Craigs message denigrating "appliance" devices applies
> > to something like open-wrt but I also do not know what djb is and a
> > web search was not revealing. I do know that dnsmasq allows you to
> > choose lease duration, and my linksys router does retain leases at
> > least for their duration.
> >
> > FYI, machines on my network run Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10, kubuntu 6.06,
> > Windows XP, 98SE, and sometimes Win ME, win2k, Mepis, SUSE 10.1,
> > puppy, knoppix, DSL, LFS, even tried Mandrake and gentoo. I have not
> > run RedHat in years but have run 4, 5, 6, 8, and even 9. Never ran
> > Fedora. I probably add and remove an average of two machines per
> > week. LOW maintenance is critical. I think a solutuion for me would
> > also work for TONS of people with simpler needs and for members of
> > SLUG. That is why I would prefer the whole enchilada be in an
> > off-the-shelf router. I just have not found one with it built in.
> ----
> It's not that I wish to denigrate anything - a simple cable/dsl router
> is only going to provide the minimum level of services since one of the
> primary objectives is low cost. I think that they get this done in 32
> megabytes of RAM and in virtually 'read only mode'. They simply don't
> provide DNS but at best proxy DNS requests. Yes, my commentary applied
> to open-wrt package as well since it too must live within the same
> constraints.
>
> dnsmasq as I understand it...
> http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html
> doesn't do much anything different so you can't expect it to provide
> local dns resolution either.
In fact the first two sentences of the reference you provide states it DOES
support local network name lookups:
Dnsmasq is a lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server.
It is designed to provide DNS and, optionally, DHCP, to a small network. It
can serve the names of local machines which are not in the global DNS.
and I am not expecting full blown DNS. proxying sounds like exacly what the
doctor ordered.
Remember this is not for a business with public facing web sites,
administrators, or any such thing. It is for maybe 1-5 people sharing some
resources or exploring computing technology. It only means your needs are
different than mine or the people I am collaborating with.
My preference is for a router to be nothing more than a router/firewall
> and not provide network services such as those discussed above or any
> others and thus, some of the appliances are more than suitable for that
> and of course, ipcop operates on hardware with 64 MB if not less.
>
> I think it's imperative for any network to have a server that provides
> infrastructure...file storage, user authentication, host name
> resolution, etc. This means that if I want to blow away my desktop
> system and do a clean install of some other OS, I can simply do that
> since my home folder, my files, my e-mail, etc. all reside on a server
> that is safe and generally backed up regularly.
>
> Craig
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
--
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
(text/plain)