linux router? firewall?

[cyjo]

i have an old 486, and i have my athlon machine and my mums work machine, im running cable, i want to set up my 486 as a router, i was going to use the linux router project, but i have a few questions, is it a firewall? will it allocate ip address for my other 2 machines? is it fast? does it cache? thankyou for your help.

 

[stirling]

The basic floppy doesn't allocate addresses and isn't a firewall or proxy or anything like that. It's probably pretty fast since it's not running too many things. You can get add on packages for lrp such as dhcp, web, ftp servers, etc...
Check it out here: http://master-beta.linuxrouter.org:8080/

I would recommend installing linux on the hdd, though, unless you have a good reason not to. Getting the kind of functionality you want out of lrp doesn't seem worth the effort.

 

[cyjo]

fair enough, only thing is i was tolf by the techie to plug my cable modem into a router, and the lrp features as a router doesnt it? if i install debian on the machine how should it be set up?

 

[stirling]

If you just want a quick router and don't care about firewalling, etc., lrp is probably a good choice, then. Fast, easy, and painless.

I'm the wrong person to ask about anything debian specific.
(I'm also the wrong person to ask about fast, easy, and painless solutions-being a computer masochist and all), but here goes:

-Boot your lrp disk.
-It'll probably ask for IP address/netmask/gateway info that you got from your ISP, so enter that info.
-On your windows machines, give them IP addresses of 192.168.0.10 & 192.168.0.20 (192.168.x.x, rather), netmasks of 255.255.255.0, and default gateway of whatever the firewall IP is.
-Plug everything into a hub
-type 'ping 192.168.0.10' (& 'ping 192.168.0.20') from the lrp box to check if they can see each other.

That should give you what I think you want, unless I'm forgetting something.

(edited for command line clarity)

 

[cyjo]

thanks mate, just a few questions

lrp has no firewalling?

so i would have to give them static ip's behind the router (comp) then?

do i need a hub if my 486 has 2 nics? i dont want to buy a hub...

 

[flippinfleck]

Your 486 will need 2 nics if you plan on using it as a router/firewall setup; one for local network and one for wan. And yes, you will need to buy a hub/switch in order to connect your other two computers to the router. Unless you hook up three nics in the 486, and one in each of the connecting systems.

But that would be pointless, what happens when you add another computer to the network?? And I'm not even sure if that would work ok. Especially if you just plan on using a pre-configured linux package such as lrp.

Anyways, get the switch (at least 5 port switch for future upgrading), dual nics in your router, and a single nic in each of your other systems. If you want to save a little money, you can sacrifice some speed. Go with 10mb nics, not 10/100. But pc - pc transfer will blow goat cheese. Especialy with larger files.

 

[Iron Woode]

Here is a simple linux firewall/router: www.freesco.org

works on a 486 no problem. run from hdd or floppy. use 3 nics. two for the lan (use crossover cables), 1 for cable connection.

it uses dhcp and client pcs are automatically given ip addresses from an ip block you choose in freesco's set up.

freesco does a lot of other things too. print server/web server/dns/etc..


no hubs or switches are needed unless you want more than 2 pcs to access the net.

 

[AMD4ME2]

Also look into ClarkConnect Internet Gateway I use it and its quick easy and has some nice features.

 

[fivepesos]

i second the call for freesco. freesco is great and it runs fine (performance is up to expectations). i love being able to put my floppy in write-protected mode and power cycle my system without properly shutting it down.

 

[stirling]

I'll third that freesco, now that I know about it.
As a bonus, it has...documentation!

 

[cyjo]

well ive opted for an install of debian with minimal services installed, so i can run a cs server as well ;P so i set up my 486 to obtain a dhcp address for my cable ent, set up ip forwading, and give my other nodes static ip's and all should be well?

 

[fivepesos]

hmm cs server might be a bit optimistic for your 486. game servers tend to demand more power thanthat has. but it will be a great router

 

[TiChuot]

or you can try BBIagent ..it's also a linux router and super-easy to use

 

[nuttervm]

yeah, it seems like you're in good hands here, but i thought i'd echo someone and say running a cs server on that machine is out of the question. you should at least have a pentium 200 or so for a cs server at bare minimum. i think they reccomend 350 last i checked (i was gonna build one for a friend, but never quite got around to it )

 

[Jhereg]

check out Smoothwall