When going to describe this page, I was given a great haiku:

Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No-one hears your screams.

A perfect introduction to the science of creating a LinuxRouterBox!

What does a Linux Router Box do?

Connects to the Internet (via ADSL, dial-up, etc), provides NAT and 'masquerading' of the connection to any number of computers on your network. Provides a FireWall. Allows you to provide a LocalMailServer?, a WebServer, DynamicDNS, any of the useful things you might want to do with any server machine.

Why would I want to use one?

I quote my parents as a great example; they have a computer, my brother has a computer, and they were all discussing getting ADSL. The parents wanted control of the connection, my brother wanted to be able to use the DSL without their computer being on, and I wanted them not to buy a Windows-only modem :)

Otherwise, you might just want to learn about Linux, or be able to ensure the connection at your house will still be up when your main PC has gone to a LAN, or crashed, or is turned off at night, or whatever myriad of other reasons you might have.

What you will need

• An old computer - anything from a 486 up is permissable, but if you have to use a 486, chances are someone can give you a Pentium class CPU for free.
• CD-ROM drive
• Network card
• DebianLinux CDs

This introduction is written with the relatively new Linux user in mind. It is written for DebianLinux because of the ease of installing software. This task is perhaps easier to provide under another distribution (see SelectingADistribution for a bit of background) - if you can figure all this out, you can change distribution.

See SomePeopleChangeTheirDistributionsAsOftenAsOthersChangeTheirUnderpants.

Incomplete; being worked on.