To start I'm just trying this to see if I can. Learn by doing if you will. Have 3 computers a P1 166, P2 266 (laptop), and a P3 866. Also have a cable connection (DHCP), a switch, boxed Redhat Linux 7.1, a bit of knowledge, and desire to figure this out;) I would like to configure the P1 as a router/firewall. So far the Linux based Freesco program is all I've found for this. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. The main objective here is security and to hide my 'lil network. The P1 will have 2 NIC cards one connected to the cable modem and the other to the switch. From the switch we have the PII, and PIII connected. The PIII will run Win XP and the PII Linux. Thought maybee I could set the PII up as a wee Linux (unoffical)server. So far it's an idea, obviously I need to gain a better understading of networking beyond the physical layer. If you have any good info links, advice, or critisism let me know.

I've never personally used XP HOME. But from what I've heard it cannot be used on a network, which is why everyone reccomends not getting it. Get the professional version.

I don't have xp either but I doubt if the previous statement is right. XP home should network with other versions of windows ok. if I am wrong, I stand to be corrected. from what I have read, yes, XP pro has more networking stuff built into it and that is one of its main features but networking is not exclusive to xp pro. Al

XP Home can be used to networked, it's just you can't use it to log into a domain with it, it only works with workgroups. I would download this smoothwall GPL version, it's must better then freesco and later when you are more verst in networking then move to freesco and other verison of linux. www.linuxiso.org

Hey Billy - Here is a site you should check out for current and future reference concerning all of the *nix's. It has always served me well when I was looking for anything from "Text Editors" to "Software Firewalls" for the *nix's. They have been around since the beginning of Unix, Postix, Xenix, and many others. They always have some development project(s) going on. And they literally have thousands of applications. And the majority of the applications are covered under the GNU GPL (General Public License) and what is real nice is that you can download the source code. Freshmeat definetely advocates Open Source. V-Peace-V http://freshmeat.net/

Try Freesco first since it is easy to set up, then experiment with others since you can always toss in the Freesco floppy to get back online and tweak whatever is on your hard disk at leisure. http://freesco.sourceforge.net/ LRP info and excellent utilities/tutorials: http://pigtail.net/LRP/printsrv/