[K12OSN] internet content filtering

[Jim Kronebusch]

> What about CPU needs of DG?  Also, since ipcop doesn't support SCSI, 
> does the cache beat this machine up?  (or can you set DG not 
> to cache?)
> 
> My problem is that I have a quad xeon (only 550mhz cpus) server with 
> SCSI drives that I plan to install squid on -- but if I could 
> get it all 
> into one gateway/filter box, it'd make me happier. :)
> 
> Anyone have any real-world "gut feelings" about CPU/Disk needs for an 
> ipcop/DG combination?  Right now, I have our ipcop running on 
> a 500mhz 
> PIII with a plain jane 20GB hard drive...  Dare I install 
> Dans on it?  I 
> figured it would puke out fast under a load...
> 
> Thanks for opening this thread Will. :)

I am the type who likes to overkill everything.  My box is a dual 333mhz
with 256mb ram and a 4GB IDE.  This is just one that was laying in the
scrap pile otherwise I would have never used a dual proc box.  The dorm
that this machine is in front of only has about 80 users in it.  I works
perfect for that.  But this should also run an entire school from my
understanding.  If you look at high end solutions such as that from
Cisco, their PIX Firewalls are at best 500mhz with minimal ram.  The
cache engines do usually run a single scsi I believe but I don't see why
a 7200 ide wouldn't work.  If you want to be safe grab an old 1GHZ
machine, slap 512mb of RAM in it, and run IDE Hardware RAID.  But from
what I found in this list when I posted about it and from internet
searching, that would be major overkill.

I want to run for about half of the year with the Dorm on one of these
boxes and then I will build one to put in front of every school if
things go smoothly.  After that I would have a better idea of what
hardware you actually need.

One nice thing about the IPCop is the automatic installation of the
Add-ons now and the easy updates.  Also I messed around with swapping
NIC's just in case one went bad, and even if I put in a totally
different brand and type of NIC (as long as it was the same quantity in
the same PCI slot) IPCop automatically transferred the configs to it and
restarted without any changes from me.  

As far as how it handles cache and whether or not you can turn it off, I
have no idea, I just know it works awesome and the interface is
excellent.

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