I just got me a new computer today and I have a wild hair up my rear to start a new project and learn something in the process.

Here's the plan:

I have two laptops and a pocket pc that connects to my lan wirelessly through a wireless router (duh. If it was a wired one, I'd be a genius ). My new computer will second as a file server for my lan, along with being my game machine, and I'll have a direct connect for guarantee router control so if I loose wifi, I can still get in. The router obviously has a firewall and I'm using MAC address filtering and WPA-PSK TKIP encryption with no ssid broadcasting as well for added wifi security.

Now that leaves me with a somewhat usable pc that I have just laying around that I'm wanting to use as a hardware firewall/game server.

So what I'm wanting to do is have all the wifi and my new gaming machine/file server connected to the router, the router connected to the new firewall/game server (BF2 and other standalone type), and the firewall connected to the dsl modem. This way, for added paranoia, I'll have two firewalls needing to be bypassed before someone hits my lan. I want it to be as invisible as possible.

Now another catch: the software server must run off a cd/dvd and be free so linux is a must (that way the hdd is configuration files and server software only). I have plenty of functional network cards I can install for the firewall so that part is covered.

So, what other wiring do I need, how do I install and set it up, and what is the best and most secure linux version to run this setup (also has to be Id10t error proof cause I do not know linux very well)?

Any takers on teaching me something new?

I'll be glad to fill in any details ya'll might need if I've left something out.

(and Lev, make it short. My brain can only process one complex task at a time. Thinking and translating overheats my 200mhz half-core CPU. )