Can't make decision on firewall/router setup

[Arjay]

Finding it hard to make a decision here...honest!!

I don't know whether to go down the off-the-shelf firewall/router road (netgear and linksys) or go for the adsl modem and old pc running IPCop.

Reasons to go with an off-the-self appliance:

Small
Quiet
Low temp
Low power consumption
No hassle

Can anyone tell me the benefits of going with a PC running IPCop? Would i learn more going down this road? I would have to acquire an old PC as i am using the other one as a webserver.

The other main reason for going with a Netgear or Linksys is that all these machines are in my bedroom. 1 x desktop, 1 x laptop, 1 x webserver (24 hrs), by adding another box running 24 hrs i am going to have some problems with noise and heat whilst trying to sleep. I am willing to look over these things however if there are greater benefits in running IPCop over a hardware appliance.

From what i have read some of the Netgear and Linksys routers have alot of features (around the £60 price tag). Unfortunatly if i buy one of these and plug it in it's all taken care of and pretty boring. I would actually like to learn someting in the process. Would IPCop for example offer any benefits in this area? I need to improve my networking knowledge.

Just thought i would ask and see if anyone can offer arguments for both routes.

Thanks for your time and any help you can offer.

Cheers

[techwise]

When I had my kids I learned to "pick my battles".

IMO, why spend the energy learning to build a OSS firewall for a one time use. Buy the hardware unit and spend the time you saved learning skills that are useful every day; some bash or awk or perl or etc etc. . .

mike

[Arjay]

Cheers techwise, i just ordered the Netgear. Off to do some Java now and other things that i should be working on and keep putting aside, like bash for example.

Cheers :D