SONaFR

SONaFR is a small system based upon OpenBSD 4.1 with router, NAT, and firewall capabilities that fits on one floppy.

OpenBSD has unique packet filter (firewall) capability and this system is considered to be one of the best security solutions around. I originally wanted to make configuration scripts but I soon realized that there are billions of systems around and users will be more knowable if things are configured manually; but don't worry, only a little time is required for this.

Automation restricts - I have already experienced this many times - a cellular phone that switches off its backlight right in the moment when I need to read a phone number from its screen, or even a VHS recorder that switches off after five minutes of recording without noticing me about it. The fact that you must hold a button few seconds to record the whole film is explained somewhere in the huge manual most of us do not have time to read. Wouldn't be I happier without it? In most cases yes!

This is a floppy distro and it has a minimal kernel. Under such conditions, it is not possible to compile every driver into the kernel.

You must have two network interface cards (NIC's) with this thing. To see all network interfaces in your system, just type: ifconfig (from within SONaFR); type: more etc/cards to see all cards that the kernel of SONaFR supports.

How to configure SONaFR

No installation is necessary - SONaFR is a bootable diskette with OpenBSD 4.1, which has a little editor (mg) and an editable filesystem stored in memory. Minimal requirements are at least 9,5 MB of RAM and a working computer (Pentium, or even 486) with a diskette drive. All other things depend on the SONaFR's ability to detect your network interface cards (NIC's). This ability is good, but since the kernel is minimalist, some network cards may not be recognized. When the floppy boots, it will show you a navigating text where you only need to press SPACE to read the introduction text up to its end.