I want to install linux on a seperate PC which will function as ADSL internet gateway for my Win2k PC.

Can somebody tell me which Linux distribution can give me the best protection and will run on a low config PC (P133, 32MB, 1G)?

Most all of them I think would be almost equivalent, its really up to you and how you setup the OS, and your own actions that make it secure. Though you can check out the NSA's enhanced security version of Linux at their website, http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/index.html , pretty cool, a must check out.

trickykid is absolutely right. Linux is really only as secure as you make it. No distro is completely secure out of the box. If you want secure out of the box you may want to look into OpenBSD.

Yeah, I know *BSD is better but the problem is that *BSD does'nt support my Alcatel ADSL Speedtouch USB modem.

I've generally found slackware to be one of the more secure distros out there. It comes with tcp wrappers installed, and although it runs everything by default (just like all the others)it runs it in a bit more secure method. There's not much that needs to be done to "harden" it. After an install I just chmod -x sendmail, lpd, portmap, atd (maybe one or two others) and clear inetd. So far I haven't had problems with it (but it isn't my firewall).

There's just one "distribution" I know of that is secure out of the box... (well actually there are a few more)

Freesco (http://www.freesco.org/) this is a single floppy firewall, like lrp but much easier to configure....

It supports most cable/xDSL and modem connections by default...

It can be run on a machine as low as a 386 with 8MB with or without a harddisk (I myself use a P75 with 32MB and a 260MB ide harddisk)

And it is capable to run a lot of extra's (virtually anything that is compiled for libc5 and 2.0.x kernels) check it out....


[Edited by bako on 05-15-2001 at 08:02 AM]

hehehe, the only _truly_ secure distro, is the one I hand-rolled :)

Why not try smoothwall http://www.smoothwall.org for a distro which I don't think is very usable in terms of a desktop but is apparently a bloody good firewall.

I'm curious if jimbix can offer examples of how Slackware runs the same stuff 'in a more secure way' than any other distro. I'm running it on a server right now, and I fail to see the logic in that statement (no offense, I *could* be wrong).

Just keep one thing in mind when it comes to almost any software, particularly OS's and, specifically, Linux - that is: DEFAULTS ARE BAD!! Defaults offer only a balance of performance and stability. Security is pretty much COMPLETELY up to the admin in Linux, and us admins generally are appreciative of that, because we're all control freaks, I guess :) j/k

Anyway, a default install of any distro I've worked with (redhat, SuSE, slackware, Debian, TurboLinux and Stormix) offer no security or performance, really. Fortunately, there are a million REALLY easy ways to tweak it and make it purr like the machine it really wants to be.

As for security, comment out all the crap in /etc/services that you don't need, check your /etc/rc.d/rc*.d directories to make sure stuff you don't use doesn't start with a capital 'S', and check out http://www.linux-firewall-tools.com which has a tool to build a custom firewall script for your network.

This really is NOT the whole story. You'll need to learn to decipher your logs if you want to know if you're really secure and perform tons of other security related tests.

Good Luck, and happy reading!