>
>I haven't used WinGate;  I know at one point, the Wingate package was
>shipped with all default settings at "Just take me over, I'm a BOZO."
>Many people complained and I'm told that NOW, the default settings are
>more like "Try it, you'll not be allowed and we'll call you names."  If

This was before 2.1x, starting with 2.1 everything was more or less ok
afair, there is a great list for wingate btw. Wingate 2.1d is/was solid,
has some problems with games or phone over IP, WG3.05 was the first stable
version again, they now move to V4.x in beta. I`m still on 2.1d, running
since 1/1999 without problems on NT4WS SP3, then SP6a.

>you set security up intelligently, I think WinGate'd be safe enough -
>BUT.  With wingate.com being somewhat less than clueful, with IPRoute
>needing just 1Mb RAM on a 386sx16 and a FDD, vs. WinGate requiring a
>Win9x or NT or Win2k licence PLUS far better hardware,

NT4WS with a 486DX66 and 32MB RAM are well eonugh for 5 PCs, as long as you
use NTFS for the drive were wingate is located (FAT isn`t able to handle a
lot of files in one dir, when you set you chache high, the system goes down
because of FAT)

>with the older
>IPRoute versions available for free, and just $50 for the latest IPRoute
>with NO NUsers limit, versus $69.95 for the 6-user only WinGate, with
>WinGate Tech Support being pricey vs. free in e-mail support, and with
>IPRoute being pretty well done, well, for now I'll run IPRoute.  And
>move to Linux later on.
>


Anyway, if you have time and brain, do it with Linux or BSD, you will save
a lot of money and you can use a realy old PC (see above) for this box. You
won`t need a monitor too, because you should be able to use one COMport for
a V24-terminalconnection to one of your W98SE-boxes.
I would use in every case a 10baseT system, it`s enough for most things
related to the Internet and a 56k-connection. If you need fast connections
between your PCs you could use some 100baseT-NICs on those boxes which need
speed, the hub should be then one of those "switching" hubs, which
translates speed between the 10baseT section and 100baseT section.

good luck

Michael Wieser
m.k.w@nextra.at

Service and Audiodesign