home network planning with all-linux questions

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Sat, Nov 17, 2007 at 00:37:39 -0600,
  Tom Poe <tompoe at fngi.net> wrote:
> I have multiple boxes to connect.  I want one to use for VoIP/PBX, one 
> for workstation, and one for router/gateway between LAN and DSL modem.  
> The router/gateway has two NIC cards?, or can I use just one card with a 
> virtual configuration?  I'm also looking for a beginner's article that 
> walks me through steps to set up network to have both VoIP/PBX and 
> workstation have access to Internet through the router/gateway.  I can 
> find pieces, but nothing that makes it come together for me, yet.  Any 
> help appreciated.

You would probably want to use two nics, otherwise the cable modem has access
to your local network. If you lan is using a private IP space, then you
can still significantly improve security even using one nic (which may
be a reasonable trade off for someone on a tight budget), but its best
not to let the cable modem see your internal traffic and not have it able
to inject any packets on your private network.

But since you have multiple boxes to connect, you really want to look at
buying an inexpensive router as the cost of the extra nics you will need
otherwise (unless you already have a switch, hub or router) will cost
almost as much as the router.