--With a sufficient number of users, you will eventually run out of available seperate partitions, even with Extended/Logical in effect. Somewhere around 16, 20 or mebbe 24 I think. (Altho I've never had to have that many myself. I think the most I've gone up to is around 12 or 13, and that's on an 80-gig HD.) However, you might get around this limitation with multiple HD's and multiple "home-only" server boxes with NFS.

--Putting /home itself on a separate partition is a good idea though, as it can last through various flavors of Linux as well as being a bit more secure.

--Which flavor do you run on your Linux router? Have you used LRP*, and do you recommend it?

--The part that I'm most interested in, having never done a software router myself (tried the Linksys hardware DSL sharing solution, but since it only uses class C (192.168...) it didn't work with my Class A setup {10.0...}) is the actual rules that people use in RL. Rickenbacherus, if you or anyone else could post an example of what specific rules you use and why, it would be a great help to me.

( * LRP:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/linuxr.../?topic_id=864,
http://www.linuxrouter.org/ )

Quote Originally Posted by rickenbacherus
Your concerns John Doe are why I choose to run a Linux router....(snip)

If you want real security build your own router. Boot the OS from a removable disc, either a floppy or cdrom. If your router OS is installed on a hard drive then it can be written to- period.

(snip)
Build a router, make it small, make it cool looking- install Linux to your network machines, put each users /home directory on a seperate partition, don't get lazy with permissions and you will likely never reinstall an OS again.

Well ok that's not entirely true. You see...............Linux in and of itself is highy addictive and you will soon find yourself saying "so many distro's so little time".