Networks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Scot L. Harris]

On Sat, 2004-10-16 at 21:36, Phil Scherzinger wrote:
> I have two computers.  Each wired to a linksys broadband router.  The
> see and can access the outside world, but I can not telenet or ftp
> them.  I can ping the ip address that the router (with dhcp) has given
> them.
>  
> What I would like to do is:
>  
> 1.  be able to share files between the two boxes, like nfs.
> 2.  be able to address the boxes by a name rather then a number
> 3.  make telnet, ftp and ssh work between the two
> 4.  because the router uses dhcp, can I get the same ip on each box
> everytime?
>  
>  
> I know this is a big task, but can some one help me get started? 

Need to confirm that you are talking about two systems located at
different locations each connected to broadband via a different linksys
router.

Assuming that is the case for the moment, what you want to look into
implementing is VPN.  (virtual private network) This will provide a
relatively secure encrypted connection between the two locations.  There
are a couple of ways you can do this.  Probably the easiest is to
install a broadband router that supports VPN.  I know netgear makes such
routers and I believe linksys does also.  With a VPN route a secure
connection is setup between the two locations.  Computers on each LAN
would then be able to connect to each other using any protocols you like
in a secure way.  I have setup this using a netgear product and it works
very well.  The benefit of doing it this way is that any computers
connected on each LAN can see and connect to computers on the other LAN.

Another option using VPN is to use software on each computer and
establish a VPN connection directly between each computer.  I believe
there are packages available to do this but I have not used them.  This
can be used over any routers but would be limited to those two systems
unless you load the same software on each system.

Another way to accomplish most of what you want is to configure your
routers to permit SSH.  You can then use ssh and scp (as well as other
similar tools) to connect from one system to the other.  NFS would not
really be feasible in this mode but there is sftp and scp that would let
you copy files between the systems.  

On the router you will need to forward port 22 (ssh) to the IP of the
computer you want to connect to.  On the local end you would ssh to the
public IP address which will then be routed to the remote system and
make the connection.

I would also recommend you hard code the addresses on your computers. 
If you are port forwarding it will make it easier to keep that setup
correctly.  With the cheaper routers you typically can not assign a
specific address to a specific machine every time.   So it is just
easier to hard code that.  Also you can then put that information in the
/etc/hosts file on both ends and if you are using a VPN you would then
use the name of the system to connect.  If you are using the ssh methods
you can put in your /etc/hosts file the public address with the name of
the system and use the name to connect.

You could setup DNS (bind) but that is probably over kill for the
moment.

Hope that helps.

-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

In Blythe, California, a city ordinance declares that a person must own
at least two cows before he can wear cowboy boots in public.