Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, Matrix Mole wrote:

> Ok, I'm in the process of fighting with my setup again, and one of the
> things I am considering is to pull my hardware modem (with jumpers for
> COM/IRQ settings) from m windows box, and placeing it into tmy linux box,
> and then turn my linux box into my prirmary gateway to the internet. My
> ISP (Joi Internet) allows for unlimited useage, but has an autodisconnect
> after 5 hours of continuous online connectivity (which I tend to do alot,
> setup overnight d/ls and then burn the results to CD in morning). In
> windows, the ssytem can autoconnect when I get disconnected (either OS
> does it for you (win2k) or use a add-on program to do so). Is there a way
> to do this autmatically in linux? Also, is there software that can be used
> in linux for on-demand dialing? This way, I can just let my wife issue a
> command to linux via networking, linux will connect, and then she can surf
> the web on her max going through linux.
>
> Any suggestions on NAT software that will allow me to route the internet
> traffic into my windows, and my wifes Mac? Is this even needed, or does
> the network routeing abilities of linux take care of this itself without
> anything exxtra needing added?
>
> Also, since I'm going to use linux as my gateway for internet, any
> suggsetions on decent firewalls to use on linux (must be freeware)?

I tried diald for awhile to share a dialin connection: this was not a BL
machine, btw.  I was very unhappy with it: it behaved very unpredictably
(e.g., disconnecting for no apparent reason and then refusing to
reconnect) and I was never able to figure out and deal with its behavior.
So, steer clear of diald.  I was planning on looking into ppp, which I
understood from some sources had developed to do the sorts of things
you're asking about.  But I ended up getting DSL (a neighbor and I split
the connection and the cost), so never got to really look into it and to
see if it would work better than diald.  Might be worth looking into.  The
PPP How To is where I'd start with that.  A telnet session may be required
to start the dialer on the gateway from the remote machine.  As for
firewalls, everyone raves about Shorewall: simple, light, effective.  But
I'm not sure it will work with the 2.2.x kernels: I think it uses
iptables rather than ipchains (I'm not real clear on the difference, not
trusting myself at this point to set up firewalling myself but rather
leaving that to preconfigured software).  I think shorewall's predecessor
was called "Seawall" and is still available.  That one does use ipchains,
and it is said to have run under Slack 7.0 so should work under BL as
well.

Let us know how you get along with both these projects: I'd like to know
if ppp does what you need and works more predictably than diald.  It would
also be interesting to know what you end up using for a firewall.

James