yukichigai
Diamond Member
Okay, here's the deal: I have an old laptop I'll be retiring soon after I get my new Sager 9750. (Ooo, shiny) As anything but a work-only computer the old lappy is a piece of crap, but it has some decent specs and a reasonable number of bells n' whistles for how old it is. (Not sure on the age actually, but at least a few years) In the past I've actually used it as a ghetto-NAT, ghetto-proxy, ghetto-router, etc. while on vacation/etc.; though it's worked out okay there is only so much you can do with Internet Connection Sharing and the free 5-user version of LanSuite 602. (Though it's a lot more than you might think) I'd like to turn the laptop into a true portable router/proxy/NAT/server/etc., something I could configure based on what I need at the time. Let me just lay out the details.
* * Laptop Specs * *
Toshiba TE2000
Intel Mobile P3 @ ~1GHz
496MB RAM (odd number eh?)
20 Gig HD
* ONBOARD:
10/100 Mbps Ethernet
V90 Modem
802.11b WLAN (WEP support only)
* PORTS:
1 Serial
1 Parallel
1 VGA
2 USB (1.1)
1 PS2
2 PCMCIA
1 IrDA
* ADDONS/ETC. I CAN USE IN IT:
Netgear 108Mbps Super-802.11g PCMCIA NIC
Bluetooth v1.2 Adapter
2-port USB 2.0 PCMCIA Card
USB (1.1) HPNA (Phone Line) NIC
USB (1.1) HomePlug (Electrical Wiring) NIC
* Complete driver support for the above under XP and 2k * (Alas, not 2k3)
* * Things I want it to do * *
1) Routing, NAT and DHCP over one or more Network Interfaces. Basically I'd like to be able to share any internet connection I can get working on the lappy via any of the other applicable interfaces. I know how to do this for all the interfaces except kind of the WiFi, but we'll get to that later. What I'm not sure on is how to "bridge" the interfaces if two computers are connected via two different methods, e.g. one is hooked up via Ethernet, the other through WiFi or HomePlug. Maybe I'm slow or something, but I can't seem to find anything like XP/2k3's Network Bridge.
2) Use as WiFi Access Point in Infrastructure(sp?) mode, not Ad-hoc mode. It may be more for aesthetics than anything else, but I'd like the lappy to be able to create a wireless network like a real AP would, rather than in Ad-hoc mode. I have no idea how to do this.
3) Enable RADIUS authentication via WiFi AP. I'm not even sure if this is possible. I know 2k has RADIUS support and can be used as a RADIUS server, but usually that's contingent on the WiFi AP and whether or not it has RADIUS support itself. If the RADIUS server and the AP are one in the same, will RADIUS still work? This isn't really a necessity, but it's definitely desireable.
4) Port-Forwarding if used for NAT/Gateway, ideally with UPnP support. UPnP may have issues, but it makes configuring things like Hamachi and BitTorrent so much easier. Obviously if I'm going to use the lappy as a decent NAT/Gateway I'm going to need to be able to forward ports to certain IPs as the need arises. I've never had to do this in 2k, so I don't know where to start.
5) Firewall. Yeah, there's ZoneAlarm for personal use, but what do you recommend for use on a server machine, ideally that's free?
6) HTTP, FTP and SOCKS5 Proxy. This one I actually have figured out. The free 5-user version of LanSuite 602 handles all my proxy needs quite nicely, once you figure out that it uses IE's cache settings in addition to its own.
7) VPN tunneling, both incoming and outgoing. I'm pretty sure I have this one down. I've set up something similar at work, though technically it's only internal. The only issue I can see is getting past whatever Firewall software I use.
8) Dial-up server. (Incoming) Say I hook the lappy up to an unused phone line, and later when I'm off elsewhere I want to dial in and connect to the network for internet and network access, albeit very very slowly. How do you set that up, both on the server end and the client end? I doubt I'd use this much, but then again I doubted that I'd ever need to share my cell phone's internet connection.
9) Network linking via Hamachi. This may be more of a Hamachi issue than a Server 2k one, but I'd like to find a way to link the "network" created by the lappy to my home network reliably using Hamachi, basically using it as a site-to-site VPN tunnel but without the annoying port requirements. I've tried a few times but it doesn't work right, not even with the most recent betas.
So far that's all I can think of that I'm looking for. Then again, I'm very tired. Anyway, I realize this seems like a crazy idea but I've got the stuff to do it, and more to the point the equipment is probably going to go to waste if I don't use it in something like this. Nonetheless, it's an interesting idea, don't you think?
So who wants to give me some help on this?
* * Laptop Specs * *
Toshiba TE2000
Intel Mobile P3 @ ~1GHz
496MB RAM (odd number eh?)
20 Gig HD
* ONBOARD:
10/100 Mbps Ethernet
V90 Modem
802.11b WLAN (WEP support only)
* PORTS:
1 Serial
1 Parallel
1 VGA
2 USB (1.1)
1 PS2
2 PCMCIA
1 IrDA
* ADDONS/ETC. I CAN USE IN IT:
Netgear 108Mbps Super-802.11g PCMCIA NIC
Bluetooth v1.2 Adapter
2-port USB 2.0 PCMCIA Card
USB (1.1) HPNA (Phone Line) NIC
USB (1.1) HomePlug (Electrical Wiring) NIC
* Complete driver support for the above under XP and 2k * (Alas, not 2k3)
* * Things I want it to do * *
1) Routing, NAT and DHCP over one or more Network Interfaces. Basically I'd like to be able to share any internet connection I can get working on the lappy via any of the other applicable interfaces. I know how to do this for all the interfaces except kind of the WiFi, but we'll get to that later. What I'm not sure on is how to "bridge" the interfaces if two computers are connected via two different methods, e.g. one is hooked up via Ethernet, the other through WiFi or HomePlug. Maybe I'm slow or something, but I can't seem to find anything like XP/2k3's Network Bridge.
2) Use as WiFi Access Point in Infrastructure(sp?) mode, not Ad-hoc mode. It may be more for aesthetics than anything else, but I'd like the lappy to be able to create a wireless network like a real AP would, rather than in Ad-hoc mode. I have no idea how to do this.
3) Enable RADIUS authentication via WiFi AP. I'm not even sure if this is possible. I know 2k has RADIUS support and can be used as a RADIUS server, but usually that's contingent on the WiFi AP and whether or not it has RADIUS support itself. If the RADIUS server and the AP are one in the same, will RADIUS still work? This isn't really a necessity, but it's definitely desireable.
4) Port-Forwarding if used for NAT/Gateway, ideally with UPnP support. UPnP may have issues, but it makes configuring things like Hamachi and BitTorrent so much easier. Obviously if I'm going to use the lappy as a decent NAT/Gateway I'm going to need to be able to forward ports to certain IPs as the need arises. I've never had to do this in 2k, so I don't know where to start.
5) Firewall. Yeah, there's ZoneAlarm for personal use, but what do you recommend for use on a server machine, ideally that's free?
6) HTTP, FTP and SOCKS5 Proxy. This one I actually have figured out. The free 5-user version of LanSuite 602 handles all my proxy needs quite nicely, once you figure out that it uses IE's cache settings in addition to its own.
7) VPN tunneling, both incoming and outgoing. I'm pretty sure I have this one down. I've set up something similar at work, though technically it's only internal. The only issue I can see is getting past whatever Firewall software I use.
8) Dial-up server. (Incoming) Say I hook the lappy up to an unused phone line, and later when I'm off elsewhere I want to dial in and connect to the network for internet and network access, albeit very very slowly. How do you set that up, both on the server end and the client end? I doubt I'd use this much, but then again I doubted that I'd ever need to share my cell phone's internet connection.
9) Network linking via Hamachi. This may be more of a Hamachi issue than a Server 2k one, but I'd like to find a way to link the "network" created by the lappy to my home network reliably using Hamachi, basically using it as a site-to-site VPN tunnel but without the annoying port requirements. I've tried a few times but it doesn't work right, not even with the most recent betas.
So far that's all I can think of that I'm looking for. Then again, I'm very tired. Anyway, I realize this seems like a crazy idea but I've got the stuff to do it, and more to the point the equipment is probably going to go to waste if I don't use it in something like this. Nonetheless, it's an interesting idea, don't you think?
So who wants to give me some help on this?
