network newbie

[Rodolfo J. Paiz]

At 17:12 4/3/2004, you wrote:
>Hi, I am have just got broadband installed and have it working on my Linux 
>box. Now I wanrt to set up a network with the other computers in my house 
>- 2 pc's and a mac.
>I have a cable modem connected via ethernet card. My plan is to use a 
>second ethernet card in my pc to connect it to a hub, and then connect the 
>other pcs to this hub.
>Since most stuff in docs that i have found is quite specific and has a lot 
>of jargon, I'm struggling to find sccesible info on how to configure this 
>network. If you have any advice or know of a suitable tutorial please let 
>me know.

A simple description of the steps:

         1. Install the second Ethernet card in your Linux box and make 
sure it is properly recognized.

         2. Assign a private-network address to this Ethernet card and to 
all your other computers (something like 192.168.0.1 for the gateway 
computer, then .2 and .3 for the others). In my example you would use a 
netmask of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway of 192.168.0.1 (your Linux computer) 
for all of them. I suggest you assign addresses manually at first; leave 
DHCP for later. In the same vein, set up all computers to use your ISP's 
DNS servers; setting up your own is not necessary.

         3. Make sure all computers on the local network can see and talk 
to each other.

         4. Set up the iptables facility (the firewall) on your Linux 
computer to protect itself and the external network from outside attacks, 
and also to allow *masquerading* which is how a Linux computer allows many 
others in its internal network to have access to the outside. You can use 
something like fwbuilder for this, or Shorewall, or other tools which will 
help you configure the firewall.

Lots of help on each of these steps can be found on the Internet. As you go 
through them, you can post specific questions here on the list and we'll 
help you through it. I am also working on a "Small Netserver HOWTO" which 
will show exactly how to do all this... unfortunately I have made progress 
very slowly and it is not ready... hopefully it will be soon. I will be 
putting in some time on this subject during Holy Week, and you can reach 
whatever content I have at the moment from here:

http://www.simpaticus.com/linux

Sorry there's not more info there yet... as I said, it has taken me a long 
time to make progress and I'll try to improve it soon.

Cheers,


-- 
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz at simpaticus.com
http://www.simpaticus.com