Hello,

Being new to the list and relatively new to Linux please don't flame me
to badly ;)  That said here is my problem I am trying to solve.

In my situation phone lines and dial up connections are relatively cheap
but broadband connections of any kind are either non existent or
ridiculously expensive.  What I am hoping to be able to do is set up a
Linux server/router/firewall for a small LAN of say 4+ desktops.  I
would like to have 2+ modems connected to the Linux box and run some
software on this box that will balance a load across multiple modems.

The first question is would this be possible?  Does Linux or some
utility that runs on Linux have the capability to balance a load across
X number of modems and would it be possible that this could increase
available bandwidth for the client machines or would it sill only be 56k
max for any given machine?

Second question would be if this is possible then were might I look for
more information on this subject?  Can someone recommend a good book to
read?

And third question, what is the best firewall for Linux?  I have SuSE
installed now and it installed a firewall but I think it is more geared
towards a Desktop installation instead of a server installation.  Could
someone direct me towards a place I could find more info on firewalls
for Linux?  Again even a suggestion of a good book would be helpful!

Thanks for any info and direction you can give me.

Regards,
Lance