Creating a low-power machine

Rob Perkins writes:


Well, what you plan to do is possible. It is also a wasted effort. Any
10-year-old could defeat it in about 30 seconds or less. You hook up cable
modem directly to computer (bypass linux box with ethernet cable). Then
fire up Internet Explorer, it detects the new proxy settings, and you are
done. But I wouldn't have to tell a 10-year-old how to do that, they
already know.

Mine doesn't. I've quizzed her on it, obliquely. (Her talents run in
other directions, and she doesn't have an interest in hate or porn.) And
my wife wants it in the house. That's pretty much the end of the
question; we're trying to prevent predatory popups and spam with it. A
low power linux distro seems appropriate as *part* of the strategy.

Thanks for the recommendation on hardware.

I guess you could get a closet and lock the system with the ADSL modem/port
in there. If you have wireless then there are not even any lines except the
phone line/cable line running into there.

Unruh wrote:

I guess you could get a closet and lock the system with the ADSL modem/port
in there. If you have wireless then there are not even any lines except the
phone line/cable line running into there.

Unruh, you just described the setup for all the kids' computers in my
home, with the addition that all the computers are in common areas, and
not the bedrooms.

Rob

Unruh wrote:

Ah, now you have trouble. The low power chips (Centrino, etc) are
expensive. The low power glue chips are also expensive. But then again old
laptops can probably be had for onle a couple of hundred bucks, and as I
say, remove the cover so they can convectively cook, and you should be
fine.

Yeah, I noticed that. I take your point about old laptops, but I kind of
also wanted this to be a building project. A couple of my kids like
watching me put PC's together.

Rob

Rob Perkins wrote:

I think unlike most modders I'm trying to do something relatively
contrarian.

I'd like to build a

-- low-power
-- fanless (heatsinks, prefer to avoid water cooling)
-- linux
-- two Ethernet ports, one for the cable modem, and one for the
rest of the net. That's right, it's a firewall/proxy machine.

...type machine. The form factor should be very small, and the
cost should likewise be very small, maybe just a couple hundred
bucks for the hardware.

I'd also like guidance on the best linux distro for this sort of
thing.

On that machine, I want to install linux, and on top of linux, a
GPL/Open Source proxy and firewall software which I can deposit
a decent and long list of internet websites.

The purpose of the machine is to serve as a ad/porn/hate site
filter for my kids, aged 1 through 10. I want Open Source so
that I can modify the code if I want to, and so that I'm not
beholden to some subscription entity for thier interpretation
of what I ought to be blocking.

Find an old '486 machine. I have one here that has no cpu fans,
just a heatsink. The whole thing draws about 30 to 40 watts when
the CRT is shutdown and the disks have spun down. It has 64 Meg of
memory. You can probably find the equivalent for free somewhere.
You may need to mount a modern disk (but older, slower ones eat
less power). You need no GUI nonsense, nor any rodentia, so an 80
Mhz '486 should be more than adequate. You probably need a
reasonably modern CD-ROM on the IDE bus to load it. Don't forget
an emergency boot floppy - you won't boot anything from CDs there.

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Rob Perkins wrote:

Well, what you plan to do is possible. It is also a wasted effort.
Any 10-year-old could defeat it in about 30 seconds or less. You hook
up cable modem directly to computer (bypass linux box with ethernet
cable). Then fire up Internet Explorer, it detects the new proxy
settings, and you are done. But I wouldn't have to tell a 10-year-old
how to do that, they already know.


Mine doesn't. I've quizzed her on it, obliquely. (Her talents run in
other directions, and she doesn't have an interest in hate or porn.) And
my wife wants it in the house. That's pretty much the end of the
question; we're trying to prevent predatory popups and spam with it. A
low power linux distro seems appropriate as *part* of the strategy.

Thanks for the recommendation on hardware.

Rob

visit OpenWrt.org; get a linksys WRTSL54GS, for about $100, and there is
your firewall, filter, wifi, all in one...

--Yan

Rob Perkins wrote:


The purpose of the machine is to serve as a ad/porn/hate site
filter for my kids, aged 1 through 10. I want Open Source so that
I can modify the code if I want to, and so that I'm not beholden
to some subscription entity for thier interpretation of what I
ought to be blocking.

If OEMs were allowed to modify Windows, to weld whatever they wanted
into the operating system instead of having to accept whatever
Microsoft's wants welded into the operating system, personal
computers geared for children might be one of the best results. Good
luck.

Why don't you just do an "allow list" to bypass a dummy
proxy in IE ? Just put it on your daughters login. That list
is good for about 75 URLs, and if she is wanting to explore
on a subject, she can do it in your presence, and if you
approve of a site that she wants to add to the list, then
add it. The list will allow wild cards like *.edu since the
scumbags are mostly *.com. I keep a few text files
that are copies of the list, and then I can open the browser
and cut and paste in the updated list. It costs nothing,
and works perfectly. She ain't going nowhere that is not
on that list.
Here it is:
In IE ... Tools, Internet Options, Connections, lan settings ..
Check .... Use a Proxy ..... then Advanced
Check .. at top type in Dummy Proxy
Check .. use for all
Then see the box where you can add in the URLs
separated by ";" . Note, you can use partial URLs like
domain.com; another domain.com ...... or you can use
the entire URL ... it is a big string, so the size is limited.
Then, when you get a site she likes, also add it to her
Favorites, so she doesn't have to remember the URLs.

johns

"linnix" writes:

CBFalconer wrote:
Rob Perkins wrote:

-- low-power
-- fanless (heatsinks, prefer to avoid water cooling)
-- linux
-- two Ethernet ports, one for the cable modem, and one for the
rest of the net. That's right, it's a firewall/proxy machine.

On that machine, I want to install linux, and on top of linux, a
GPL/Open Source proxy and firewall software which I can deposit
a decent and long list of internet websites.

You might also want to take a look at OpenBSD.

Make sure you don't touch the hard disks after booting; otherwise, it
will take off (sound like a jet) every few minuties.

Or even easier, if you cut down seriously the root partition,
you can load the whole / into RAM and run it from there. Unmount
the disks then spun them down. But you need to ensure that changes
to config files are saved somewhere else.

However, for this you need a good amount of memory.
(at work I am playing with this, but the machines have half a GB memory,
but they also run X).

You need no GUI nonsense, nor any rodentia, so an 80
Mhz '486 should be more than adequate. You probably need a

Agree. My firewall is a 486 running OpenBSD, and it is working
flawlessly.

Vilmos

johns wrote:

Here it is:
In IE ... Tools, Internet Options, Connections, lan settings ..
Check .... Use a Proxy ..... then Advanced
Check .. at top type in Dummy Proxy
Check .. use for all

Not the point. It's more than just a net nanny blocker. It's also going
to be my main firewall and router for the home network. I need something
I can *control*, not some netgear/linksys/dlink thing.

Plus, y'know, I need an excuse to play with Linux...

Rob

Take up gaming. Beats the crap out of trying to keep
Linux running :-)

johns