How to Configure IPCop as a Firewall

How to Configure IPCop as a Firewall






Steps

1. Obtain an old Intel based PC. Anything in the last 6 years should suffice, although you can use older, it's not recommended.
2. obtain two network cards, preferably realtek or another cheap brand that supports NE2000 drivers. this is really most cards by linksys and D-link.
3. Install the cards in the computer.
4. Obtain a crossover network cable for your computer, if you don't intend to use a switch or hub as well. these are relatively inexpensive at your local computer vendor, but can cost a lot of money ($30) at retail chains.
5. Visit http://ipcop.org and download the latest version of IPCop. it is roughly 45 megabytes.
6. Burn this to a CD.
7. Toss a cdrom reader into the computer you intend to use as a router. place the cd in the reader, and boot the machine, ensuring that you boot off of the cd.
8. The only thing of note while installing is that most of the default settings are correct. make sure you pick the correct time zone and choose passwords carefully.
9. During the install, it is going to ask you what sort of setup you want to use. You should choose to autodetect network cards (you have to do this twice, for two cards) it should do this without any errors - you did buy the realtek/ne2000 cards, right? after you have autodetected the cards, you want to tell it that you want a RED-GREEN network. This means, essentially, that one network card is connected to the outside world, and one is connected to your computer(s) at your location. you can assign either of the cards to either color, which you choose is irrelevant, just make sure you assign both.
10. Tell IPCop your type of connection. don't worry about PPPoE passwords and such just yet.
11. follow the rest of the prompts and reboot. don't forget to remove the CD from the drive.
12. upon rebooting, connect the network cables however you want, unless you know which goes where it's sorta random. (if you used two different types of cards, you'll know which is green and which is red from the setup)
13. open a web browser and surf to the ip that you set up. usually you should have set it to 192.168.1.1 therefore you would surf to this address: http://192.168.1.1:81 do not leave off the :81 because this is the port of the router's web server.
14. you'll see a page that says disconnected. if not... switch the cables and reboot your computer (not the router). if you're more tech savvy, release and renew the IP of your machine after switching the cables, it accomplishes the same thing.
15. browse the menus. the main one you want to set up for instant internet access is the one that reads Dial-up settins in the second tab. In here you set it up for PPPoE or whatever other ISP settings you may have.
16. Go back to the main screen and hit connect.
17. Enjoy!