IpCop is a distribution that one would use to create a router/gateway for their network. It is a small iso to download and is intended to be a router/gateway and is not intended to be a full distro including graphical mode and such. It is fairly straight forward to install as long as you know what information to enter. For my example, I use a cable connection so I will use that in my guide.

If you are using a different setup or want further details, please check out The Official IpCop Homepage You will find lots of info there on the specifics that I may not cover in my guide. If you are using a different connection than me, be sure to check out that page for further info and documentation.

* An IpCop bootable media type, which can be downloaded at the IpCop Download Page.

* An old box (min system requirements are 386 (not 386mhz, a 386!) , 8mb ram and 100mb hd - I am using a P133 with 48mb edo ram and a 1Gb hd).

* A switchable device - this could be a router being used as a switch or you could use a switch (I use an 8 port switch). Yes, you could use a hub, but it would slow down your network and after all if you are going to the effort to make a linux router, why not configure it for better performance?

* 2 network cards in the old box you are using

* a bootable bios via cd and a working floppy drive is good for backing up your configuration later on. If you don't have a bootable bios via cdrom, see the ipcop doc section "Creating floppy disks from ../images" for info on how to create a floppy boot disk.

* before starting be sure to release your ip from whatever you are using so it can create a new one from this install

* you do need this old box to be connected to a monitor, kb for the install but this is only for the install and is completely unnecessary after unless you want to reinstall or upgrade the entire distro

6. Remove media (cd rom or floppy disk)

7. Choose language

8. Choose timezone

9. Enter hostname (default is ipcop - if you change it, remember it!)

10. ISDN config menu (unless you are using ISDN, disable it)

11. Network Config Menu:

a) choose your combination (mine was green and red) see the docs for explanations on what each one means.

b) drivers and card assignments - Green is likely already set as eth0. If red is unset, then you must select "change settings". Probe for the second card and assign it to where you like (red in my case) If it doesn't find the card, then you need to use a different one because that one is not supported (this is extremely rare, but just so you know)

c) double check the card assignments, so in my case:

if this is correct, select "ok"

d) Address Settings:

e) DNS and Gateway settings - only used when dhcp is disabled. Input the info if you are not using dhcp, then select 'done' when finished.

f) DHCP sever configuration - you will need to enable this if you are using dhcp and so your ipcop and give out an ip address to your computers connected to your switchable device

13) Root Password (this is for the ipcop distro itself) - set it and do NOT ever lose this.

14) User password for ipcop - again do NOT lose this.

15) IpCop Admin - this is for actually logging into the browser config which you will be doing more than anything else so this one is very important to remember.

16) Done - reboot. Make sure all of your connections are attached properly. If you are using a cable modem and have a switch and are using my example here as a reference you would set things up like this:

* if u can leave your monitor and kb connected to the IpCop box and have another box on your network connected to the switch - that way you can test whether it is getting an ip from your IpCop or not - you should restart your network on the box that is connected so you can see if it is getting an ip from the IpCop box or not. Try typing 'ifconfig' or '/sbin/ifconfig' into the ipcop box and it should show that you have a computer on your network and it should show your eth0 and eth1 and lo. One shoud be getting an IpCop via dhcp and the other should be your gateway (192.168...)

If you have everything set up right, then you should be able to just turn it on and it should work.

You can basically start up your system with the other boxes plugged in and then open up a browser in one of them and then type in whichever address you gave your green device (ie - 192.168.1.1) and then choose port 81(normal) or 445 (secure), so you can do 192.168.1.1:81 and it should open up ipcop on the screen. You can then click on services at the side and then it will ask you for your password info (admin and then admin pw) and then it will give you access to the settings. On the services tab, if you are using dhcp you want to make sure you have dhcp checked off where it says enable. You can check to see if it is running under "Information" For example, when things are up and running you may see something like this:

Logging server RUNNING
DNS proxy server RUNNING
Web server RUNNING
Intrusion Detection System STOPPED
CRON server RUNNING
DHCP server RUNNING
Web proxy STOPPED
VPN STOPPED
Secure shell server STOPPED
Kernel logging server RUNNING

If dhcp is not running and you need to use it, go and enable it.

Another thing to look at it is clicking on System and then seeing what updates are available. There will likely be some that you can get. This is a really nice feature of IpCop. You can actually download the updates on the box where you are viewing them and then upload them right on that screen to the IpCop box (no need to connect the monitor, kb or mouse). This is a very convenient feature. You will need to reboot your IpCop box in order for those changes to take effect - I just pushed my power button off and then waited a bit and turned it back on and the changes took effect :)

You can also back up your configuration to a floppy disc as well. Under System go to where it says backup and you can easily just backup your IpCop configuration to a floppy disk. This is handy in case you ever need to reinstall it or want to upgrade your version when new releases are out. It saves all your settings so during the install when it asks if you have a backup floppy, you just put it in the drive and let it use that, it's very easy to restore or upgrade a system that way. All you settings are saved so you don't have to do anything to get it back to where it was again.

To open ports, go to the Port Forwarding tab in Services. Basically in order to open up a port you need select the protocol (tdp/udp) and then type in the name of the ip (computer address) for which you would like to have that port open in the 'destination ip' area and then enter in the port number on the right where it says source and destination port (just type the port number twice in most cases) Make sure "enabled" is checked off and you can also put in a remark (name of app or purpose of opening the port for your own reference if you like), then click on add. You will need to repeat this same step for tcp and udp if you are using both. You need to do this for each port you are opening. I have found that with other routers no matter what I did, I was not able to access ports I had supposedly opened and was very limited in how many I could add to around 6 which fill up very fast (cough *Linksys* cough), but with IpCop, I have had no issues and can add as many as I like.

You can also check out some interesting charts under the Information tab that shows the traffic.

Overall, this works great as a router and I highly recommend it. I also found the IpCop community to be friendly as well while others were, well, not so friendly (to be diplomatic).