Ok. I'm new to this, I want something, and I'm willing to do the grunt work if I can get some guidance.

I now run Mandrake 9.1 on my PII/266. I use it to do some Latex and I'm trying to learn more about Linux. Importantly, this Linux box is my router and firewall for the rest of the family's Windows PC's.

I've tried Knoppix on my PII. It ran perfectly first time no fuss no muss. So, I thought it would be great if Knoppix could be my firewall/router. Plus, with Knoppix I could have that live CD security (reboot = original config all nasties in ramdisk gone). If I'm not home, my wife could reboot without worry if there were a problem. Can other distros do this? No because they are dedicated only to FW/router. I want a little more.

So what needs to be done for me to make this happen? Where do I get info? What should I consider? Like I say, I will happily do the work but at this point I'm not sure where to begin. Any guidance would be appreciated. TIA.