[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On Fri, 1 Apr 2011, Grant Sewell wrote:
On Fri, 1 Apr 2011 08:33:33 +0100 (BST) Gordon Henderson wrote:On Fri, 1 Apr 2011, Grant Sewell wrote:Hi all, With any luck, after Easter some of my students will be in a position where we can afford to "play" with some kit. I would like to cover routing with them in more depth and I would like to give them a series of tasks involving a bunch of low end computers and a bunch of PCI network cards... ie building their own routers with which to put the routing theory into practice.So rather than bloating the box with additional nonsense, why not just do it from scratch - basic linux install, a few ifconfig commands and a few iptables commands. Done.I suppose if I were covering a Cisco system I would just get them to jump straight into setting it up via the command line. There really is no need for kid gloves. So any recommendations on slim-line systems then Gordon? Would you go for a grass-roots Debian system? Or Slackware?
If you install Debian using the "expert mode" (text mode) and un-tick the selections then you actualyl get a very bare-bones system - which includes iptables, but no GUI of any sort (so it will work with almost any underlying hardware). the kernel in Squeeze will recognise just about anything out there network wise too - although there are some whinges about newer realtec Gb interfaces (typically on Atom hardware) - the chip firmware was removed from the kernel, but it still works OK.
CLI is there - it's built in. It's called /bin/bashNo need for sarcasm! :p
Well, it's more flexable that the CLI in IOS - and you get decent editors - e.g. vi :)
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq