I have a 486DX and would like to make a firewall out of it. I'm wanting to use dos,mainly bcause I do not have linux,nor am I familiar with it. If anyone would know how to, or where I can get some information on how to do this, I would appreciate it.

There used to be a product called "FireWall/Plus for MS-DOS" The link doesn't work any longer. The expired link was at: http://www.network-1.com/products/firewall/eval2.html Firewall Plus is a packet filter firewall. It is now sold as a firewall for Windows NT. TAMU Drawbridge is another old, slow, featureless product who's name I haven't thought about for eons (at least it's free if you can find it). I tried the link I have but it didn't work either: ftp://net.tamu.edu/pub/security/TAMU (TAMU stands for Texas A&M University)

I suggest you reconsider choosing Linux as your firewall. The entire system can be booted off of a floppy disk, so you could completely remove the hard drive, Fans, and monitor as well. With Linux you would not have to reboot just about ever. Besides that, if you just search for "The Linux Router Project" you can easially find a disk image that really doesn't need you to know much at all. Just a Suggestion.