Home network security help please

[nippinout]

In two weeks, I will have my DSL connection up and running. The setup will be my box as the gateway connection, an internal DSL modem with a NIC to a hub. All clients connect through the hub.

I had previously thought that my box would be a proxy, but now that I have learned that it would be a gateway, is there any interaction between any client's data interacting with either the gateway box or any other clients'?

One of my roommates has a problem with being stupid and downloads anything and everything that has a virus on it.

One more question. With this setup, would my ISP or DSL provider see only my IP and only my IP?

Thanks!

 

[nippinout]

One more queston.

A room mate has an iMac. Is she going to have any problems connecting? I don't know Macs very well. How can it be set up to use connection sharing, if it even can.

Thanks!

 

[WillyF1uhm1]

Could be. If your pc will be router/gateway/proxy it is possible that it will also have a cache in which several sites are stored. If a client will go the the same site, it will not have to access it through the net, but instead will access the cahce in your proxy. Probably this will be stored on your harddrive.

If your pc will act as a router then your ISP will only see the IP of your machine. Internally (i.e. to the clients) it will translate to an internal IP range.

Networking with TCP/IP should be possible with a Mac.