Travel Technology - Help me plan a diy network storage box with integrated VPN

Ok, so here's my idea. I want to setup a box that will:
1) Provide storage accessible from both INSIDE and OUTSIDE my home network
2) For outside access: I want VPN access (IPSEC, etc-specifics don't really matter)

Details:
Here is what I currently have:
-Linksys Cable Modem
-Linksys WRT54G
-A couple of 4-5 year old boxes w/ everything still in them

I know I'll need:
-NIC (I plan on connecting the router w/ Cat6e cable to a 10/100 NIC on box)-$10-15 based on how good of deal I can get
-Some Linux Distro-probably (I have Win98 on them now)-free

I know I could buy a network storage pre-made box, and then get a VPN endpoint router, but I'm cheap, have stuff l can use, and want a project

So, computer people, help me out.

Note on my experience:
-I consider myself to be a rather computer savvy college student
-I'm good on windows
-I'm comfortable w/ the hardware side (i.e. adding PCI cards, adding HD's, switching jumpers, loading modded firmware, etc.)
-I've fiddled w/Linux (e.g. Knoppix, etc.)
-I'm not really good @ programming (I know some BASIC, and that's BASICally it)

Check this out: http://www.freenas.org/

Check this out: http://www.freenas.org/

Thanks for the site but it doesn't look like that provides for VPN. Or am I missing something?

Thanks for the site but it doesn't look like that provides for VPN. Or am I missing something?

freeNAS is based on m0n0wall, which includes:

* web interface (supports SSL)
* serial console interface for recovery
o set LAN IP address
o reset password
o restore factory defaults
o reboot system
* wireless support (access point with PRISM-II/2.5/3 cards, BSS/IBSS with other cards including Cisco)
* captive portal
* 802.1Q VLAN support
* stateful packet filtering
o block/pass rules
o logging
* NAT/PAT (including 1:1)
* DHCP client, PPPoE, PPTP and Telstra BigPond Cable support on the WAN interface
* IPsec VPN tunnels (IKE; with support for hardware crypto cards, mobile clients and certificates)
* PPTP VPN (with RADIUS server support)
* static routes
* DHCP server and relay
* caching DNS forwarder
* DynDNS client and RFC 2136 DNS updater
* SNMP agent
* traffic shaper
* SVG-based traffic grapher
* firmware upgrade through the web browser
* Wake on LAN client
* configuration backup/restore
* host/network aliases