Newbie question: needed PC specs and performance

[R. Welz <linuxprodukte () gmx de>]

Hello.
Please excuse if you receive this message twice, but my first Message 
didn't make it even in the archive(?). Hope this one will...



Hello.
I want to set up a router, firewall and snort on a dedicated machine. 
In addition I want to have an OpenSSH Server running on my "Entrance to 
my LAN". And all that on a DSL line (low speed 700 soemthin kBit 
downstream, 128 kBit  upstream). This is for a web server running and 
normal traffic. I play huge graphics games over the net and I get tons 
of emails.

I have a spare computer for this purpose, with a 10 MBit Ethernet Card 
on board and an 100 MBit Card added but I am not quite shure wheather 
this machine will have enough speed for my needs: Its a 8 Year old 
Apple Power Macintosh 7600 with 132 MHZ and 80 MByte Ram.

On the other hand there are Computer on PC base with 2 GHZ for about 
500 Euros and there are Linux OSes like SuSE which can be configured 
graphically. Obviously my Mac won't run any X-Server since that would 
be veeerrrry slow, although I havn't tried. And I use Debian which has 
the oldest Kernel I ever seen (2.2 out of the box, 2.4.18 built 
myself).

BTW would the 2.4.18 Kernel be recent enough concerning security and 
stability?

So I am not quite shure wheather to buy a new PC in the lower price 
segment or to stay with my Mac. Since I am student, I would rather like 
to buy books instead computer hardware but on the other hand I don't 
want to sit on a museum with the oldest hardware one has ever seen and 
building, configuring and compiling Linux software takes days just to 
reveal that the hardware is outside "recommendations".

What do you think?

Suggestions greatly welcome,
Robert Welz



-------------------------------------------------------
SF.Net is sponsored by: Speed Start Your Linux Apps Now.
Build and deploy apps & Web services for Linux with
a free DVD software kit from IBM. Click Now!
http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1356&alloc_id=3438&op=click
_______________________________________________
Snort-users mailing list
Snort-users () lists sourceforge net
Go to this URL to change user options or unsubscribe:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/snort-users
Snort-users list archive:
http://www.geocrawler.com/redir-sf.php3?list=snort-users