By "content filtering", I'm assuming you mean web content. Easiest thing I've found is IPCop, www.ipcop.org, for firewall, Squid proxy (content filtering), basic server add-ons available for all kinds of stuff, but I'd recommend seperating that stuff to another server. If you use Squid, you will need a little more ram than a basic IPCop box. I'd say any where from 64 or 128 MB on up. This and the processor required is dependent on the number of clients. For the 20-30 clients you could try a Pentium I or II, say up to a 500MHz and start with 128 or 256 MB. Also you will need a hard drive from 2GB on up to 10GB. If you had several older boxes that are exactly alike, I'd recycle them into a IPCop box and a cold spare. You could probably have the spare up in 10-30 minutes if you had to do updates or duplicate some network changes.

In reality, you could use ANY Linux distro and just add a second NIC, Squid proxy and NAT, but why make extra work for yourself? There are free appliance -like Linux distros, but this is one I'm familiar with and have used for over 2 years.

Brian Kelsay

******************************************* If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. - Robert X. Cringely

-----Original Message----- From: On Behalf Of Denise Owen Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 6:06 AM To: kclug@kclug.org Subject: Content filtering applicance

I am looking for an application to filter the content for a small school I have been working with. It looks like the best solution would be the appliance/software combination. I thought maybe someone might have some recommendations. I know that the budget is very limited. The school only has 25 to 30 computers at the present time and probably won't ever have more than 40 to 50.

Thanks

Denise