fli4l is a Linux-based router, capable of handling ISDN, DSL, UMTS, and
ethernet connections, with little hardware requirements: an USB stick used for
booting, an Intel Pentium MMX processor, 64 MiB RAM as well as (at least) one
ethernet network adapter are completely sufficient. The necessary boot medium
can be created under Linux, Mac OS X or MS Windows. You don't need any specific Linux
knowledge, but it is definitely helpful. However, you should possess basic
knowledge about networking, TCP/IP, DNS, and routing. For developing your own
extensions exceeding the basic configuration, you will need a working Linux
system as well as Linux skills.
fli4l supports various boot media, among them USB sticks, hard disks, CDs, and
last but not least booting over the network. An USB stick is in many respects
ideal: Today, almost every PC can boot from it, it is relatively cheap, it is
big enough, and installing fli4l onto it is relatively easy under both
MS Windows and Linux. In contrast to a CD it is writable and thus additionally
able to hold non-volatile configuration data (as e.g. DHCP leases).
- General features
- Creation of boot media under Linux,
Mac OS X, and
MS Windows
- Configuration through flat ASCII/UTF-8 files
- Support for IP masquerading and port forwarding
- Least Cost Routing (LCR): automatic provider selection based on daytime
- Displaying/Computing/Logging of connection times and costs
- MS Windows/Linux client imonc talking to imond and telmond
- Upload of updated configuration files via MS Windows client imonc or via
SCP under Linux
- Boot media use the VFAT file system as permanent storage
- Packet filter: External access to blocked ports is logged
- Uniform mapping of WAN interfaces to so-called circuits
- Running ISDN and DSL/UMTS circuits in parallel is possible
- Router basics
- Linux kernel 3.16
- Packet filter and IP masquerading
- Local DNS server in order to reduce the number of DNS queries to external
DNS servers
- Remotely accessible imond server daemon for monitoring and controlling
Least Cost Routing
- Remotely accessible telmond server daemon logging incoming phone calls
- Ethernet support
- Up-to-date network device drivers: Support for more than 140 adapter types
- DSL support
- Roaring Penguin PPPoE driver supporting Dial-on-Demand (can be switched
off)
- PPTP for DSL providers in Austria and the Netherlands
- ISDN support
- Support for some 60 adapter types
- Multiple possibilities for ISDN connectons: incoming/outgoing/callback,
raw/point-to-point (ppp)
- Channel bundling: automatic band width adaptation or manual activation of
the second channel using MS Windows/Linux client software
- Optional software packages
- DNS server
- DHCP server
- SSH server
- Simple online/offline display using a LED
- Serial console
- Minimalistic Web server for ISDN and DSL monitoring as well as
for reconfiguring and/or updating the router
- Ability to let external hosts access LAN hosts in a controlled manner
- Support for PCMCIA cards (called PC cards nowadays)
- Logging of system messages
- Configuration of ISAPnP cards by the use of isapnp tools
- Additional tools for debugging
- Configuration of the serial port
- Rescue system for remote administration over ISDN
- Software for displaying configurable information on an LCD, e.g.
transmission rates, CPU load etc.
- PPP server/router over the serial port
- ISDN modem emulator over the serial port
- Print server
- Time synchronization with external time servers
- Execution of user-defined commands on incoming phone calls (e.g.
to perform Internet dial-up)
- Support for IP aliasing (multiple IP addresses per network interface)
- VPN support
- IPv6 support
- WLAN support: fli4l can be an access point as well as a client
- RRD tool for monitoring the fli4l
- and much more...
- Hardware requirements
- Intel Pentium processor with MMX support
- 64 MiB RAM, better 128 MiB
- Ethernet network adapter
- ISDN: supported ISDN adapter
- an USB stick, an ATA hard disk or a CF card (which is accessed the same
way as an ATA hard disk); alternatively, booting from a CD is also
possible
- Software requirements
The following tools are required on Linux systems:
- GCC and GNU make
- syslinux
- mtools (mcopy)
No additional tools are required on MS Windows systems, all necessary tools are
provided by fli4l.
Last but not least, the client utility imonc exists for controlling the router
and for displaying the router's state. This tool is available for MS Windows
(windows/imonc.exe) and also for Linux (unix/gtk-imonc).
And now ...
Have fun with fli4l!
Frank Meyer and the fli4l team
email: team@fli4l.de
© 2001-2020 The fli4l-Team - 2 February 2020
