Intranet Server for Processes

I couldn't really figure out a forum for this but it is a FreeBSD machine, so I guess it would go here. What I want to do is make a machine into a type of gateway. It will handle all of our services and run as a mail server (in and out) from my house. It will also be setup as a webserver and block anything trying to go into the network and stop it at this machine. Kind of like a router with built in processes, like mail. Do you know of any tutorials that could help me out with this because I haven't done stuff like setup a mail server or dns server. I have done apache though. And one last question, is there anyway to make it like an actual mail processing type machine, so you type in mail as the pop and smtp server (like @home), and it will get your mail that you setup? Thanks!

Of course FreeBSD can do all of the above, and more. If you want this machine to be an intranet gateway to the web, though, then you will probably want to install NAT firewall support, and have private IP addresses for your internal network. (ipfilter, and ipfw are the two main choices for *BSD) Onlamp.com has good article explaining how to set that up. Ipfw is what I use to connect multiple computers at home with my DSL gateway.

As far as the webserver, and other services, you should think carefully here.

1. Often, it's not the best idea to run all your services from the firewall/gateway. The firewall should be dedicated to filtering your network activity, and nothing more. IMO, you should probably use a very cheap machine for this, and choose another machine to run your web and mail services.

2. What type of connection will you have to the web? Do you have a domain name? Will you do your own DNS, or have an ISP handle it?

These questions need to be answered before anyone can give more specific advice.

A good tip for general FreeBSD knowledge is to search through this forum for posts by the member named freebsd, who sometimes makes us wonder if he isn't one of the core developers in disguise .

Besides the www.Onlamp.com/bsd site above, also spend some time at:

FreeBSD Handbook
www.daemonnews.org
www.freebsddiary.org
http://www.mostgraveconcern.com/freebsd/

Well my main thought on setting it up as the gateway and webserver was it might be easier to collect mail and everything. Right now I have a router thought which I could use. I can just route everything from certain ports to that machine. I'm just wondering how hard it would be to set up that machine with a domain name and let it accept mail and everything. I'm not really sure on the whole DNS situation. My provider is cox@home and since they are going to their own network and away from @home (who wouldn't allow me to have a server), we are checking to see if cox alone will.