Re: Power savings and trusting Linux firewall

["markw-4" <user=5@nabble.blu.org>]

 > On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 08:28:18AM -0400, [hidden email] wrote: 
>> For reference, at my billing rate for electricity, a 1 watt drain that's 
>> left on 24/7/365 is about $1.50 a year. 
>> 
>> I added a switch bar for all my monitors and printers, which even if 
>> "off" 
>> still use power. 
>> 
>> I have been thinking about eliminating a separate Linux computer (119 
>> watts or  about $180 a year) with a second NIC in my regular computer 
>> and 
>> run all that stuff locally. The problem is that I like having a separate 
>> firewall system because I "feel" safer, and in fact I am provably safer, 
>> but am I $180 safer in real terms? 
>> 
>> Thoughts? 
> 
> Depends on what you are doing, but you may want to switch to a consumer 
> router (~10-20 W) and that second NIC (~3 W). Run OpenWRT or a similar 
> Linux-based replacement firmware on the router, and do heavy lifting 
> (anything beyond simple port filtering and NAT) on the 'regular' 
> computer.