homemade switch

[~(o)-(0)~]

Ok, so just for the heck of it I want to make a switch out of some 4 port network cards I've gotten a hold of. I want to use an old PC sort of along the same lines as IPCOP or Smoothwall, is there a linux distributiopn that I can use as a managed switch OS, or can IPCOP be adapted to do that, like have 8 green interfaces...neways, if anybody has any leads it'd be really appreciated if you could let me know, thanks.

Nick

[TalRW]

I can't answer your question but I can cross something off your list. Smoothwall can't do that many interfaces. You get green/red/orange/blue (homebrew mod). So I guess you can cross smoothwall off your list.

[~(o)-(0)~]

Yeah I knew smoothwall couldn't, I was just mentioning it so people could get an idea of what I'm looking for.

[sandrock]

Don't know of any Linux distributions that do that right off the bat, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard using some IPTABLES. On the other hand, I believe you can set something like that up using Windows Server 2003 using the Routing and Remote services. However performance probably isn't going to be up to par to a regular switch. At the very least, you have a couple of options to look into.

[fUzZ bUnNy]

Freesco (http://www.freesco.org/) should be able to do that. If I am not mistaken it is capable of that at layer 2, but it would probably be cheaper on your electric bill and you would have higher thoroughput to just go out and buy a cheap switch.

[Uqdroma]

I used a 4 port NIC as my green in IPCop. However it just simply makes a router with a 4 port switch. Like any store-bought router. I mean to say that IPCop at least supported the hardware (drivers). I suppose if you put a couple in the box, it would make a green 4 port and an orange (DMZ) with 4 ports. My 4 port NIC was made by Aopen I believe. I only had one, and never tried it on the orange (DMZ) to see if it made multiple ports for that subnet. I suspect it will, but I'm not sure if that's what you were asking.

[~(o)-(0)~]

^^yeah, thats what I'm asking, but I want to know if I can make more than just one device as my green interface, that would actually be my ideal solution to tell you the truth, that way i wouldn't even need 2 machines

[klingens]

If you put each network card into its own subnet, it will work with any standard Linux distro. Not exactly managaed tho.