G'Day...
I downloaded a copy of ASTARO yesterday over modem and I am impressed... I do have a few comments though.
1. PPP is certainly something that should be accepted, even if it is not supported. Many people have a dialup backup connection even if they do have some other type of connection. It makes sense to have support for PPP internally. I know that it might be an area that has little interest, but it would make the product more useful. Much more useful.
2. I do not like the idea of requiring a router to have a HDD running all the time. I would love to have...
a) The root partition and all except log partitions to be read only most of the time.
b) The config files maybe in a read/write area on the HDD, but have another partition on the HDD where the settings are saved read only.
c) In the case of reboot without shutdown have the config partition reformatted as a matter of course and files copied back
Translating, I would love to have most of the O/S on READ ONLY MEDIA, and only have config files and logs on R/W media, and on emergency reboot, just trash the logs (optionally) rather than recover them. I want to be able to get a router running over the phone with my mother at the console after a crash.
3. There is really no need to require 1.5 GBytes of HDD... An install only really needs a max of 150 MBytes, so the rest is for cache and logs. It should be my choice to use a 500 MByte HDD if I need to.
4. The WWW interface allos turning off the MAIL, HTTP and mail cacheing. These could be optionally installed.
5. Include SNORT (www.snort.org) into the install. We all need to be implementing more than just portscan detection.
6. How about a license for a non-commercial site. I do a bit of consulting, but it is not really commercial. I have a number of computers here, but cannot justify the full cost of the smallest license for home use. BUT, I believe in paying for software so I would like to pay for something. How about a HOME NETWORK license, for under US$100? That is still expensive, but manageable. Or should we only register for yearly up2date subscription?
7. A manual is needed. If you need someone to proof-read let me know.
8. My biggest complaint with the product? MORE is missing... It is now called LESS. An ALIAS fixed this in BASH
9. Needing to know about SCP to transfer files is a subtle way of suggesting that you do not contaminate the system by loading FTP or TELNET. The other way is to open up the firewall for all ports from the internal network and use NetCAT to get WGET and then place files on a WWW site... Not recomended.
10. Detauils on the software and hardware for LCD would be useful. I have an LCD on one LINUX box here and it is cute. Would love that on my router.
11. An option in the WWW interface to log all entried to another PC or to the serial port would be cool... Since I cannot use PPP it would be cute to have the serial port connect to a serial logging device logging all messages, just incase the machine gets totally hacked and I loose all the logs.
12. I do not like the idea of no ISA card, but I know why. Not much can be done, but when evaluating, it is a pain.
13. The bootable ISO is a good idea. Just required four hours on my dialup modem.
14. Reading the install guide is essential. *REALLY*. But once you read it things are not too bad.
15. No X11 is good. Should be more (less) of it.
16. Up2Date is cool, but what mods of my own will it wipe out?
Anyway I think that is all... Sorry about all the points, but they are my thoughts'
Darryl
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