“Want to build a custom router/firewall for your home network?
You can obtain the necessary hardware virtually for free from
garage sales or on-line auctions. You even might have some old
hardware lying around. A Pentium-class system is more than
sufficient and can handle the stress well. Typically, we don’t need
much memory, but I recommend at least 16MB of RAM. In place of a
hard disk, we can use a compact Flash, or CF, card. CF has some
nifty features, such as on-board error detection and correction to
minimize Flash wear. Due to a full-fledged IDE interface, it also
can be used as a normal IDE device. You do need an adapter to
connect the card, though. We are going to use only two to three
megabytes, so the size of the card doesn’t really matter…”
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Dallas
Morning News: Put your dinosaur machine to work in practical and
whimsical ways(Oct 19, 2000)