Linksys Firewall/router

[Brian Densmore]

> I setup another computer with 2 NICs and it is running as a 
> firewall and a
> gateway for my Win2K box.  It's running Debian (testing), and 
> has been a
> reliable solution for me.
> 
> ...  Even
> though it's not generally accepted as good security practice, 

Which brings up a good point. Why is it better to have a dedicated
hardware solution? After all the hardware is just a CPU with firmware as
opposed to a CPU with software. And in today's world the "firmware" is
more like "firmware until the next flash". Unless I am way off base
here? If I am I'd sure like to know. 

> I also run a
> web server and a SSH server on the box.  Those two things are 

And on another related subject. I can't get my SSH server to allow scp.
I am running SSH with protocol 2 only. Is this preventing scp from
connecting? Anybody ever do scp? any help would be appreciated, I have
considerable data I want to transfer to my server.