Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005, Carl Reaburn wrote:

> network.  This also makes XP safe from attack as it will not respond to any
> packets sent to it, not even a ping!
>
> If all works according to plan I will be able to feed a live IP into BL3
> running on Virtual PC.  BL3 will forward ports to other linux machines.
> The other linux machines will also be running in Virtual PCs.  By enabling
> the virtual switch on the second network card I should be able to share the
> routed packets among the Virtual machines on the same NIC.  While turning
> off the virtual switch on the network card containing the live IP, should
> force all data through the firewall BL3 machine.
>
> this would be a lot easier to explain with a picture. are attachments
> permitted?
>
> When I am finished I should have one windows XP machine running:-  a
> router/firewall,  and several different domain names (each with a different
> live IP).  Each domain will have it's own virtual machine to run it's
> software.  Mostly synchronet bbs packages.  So I'll have several domains,
> web servers, mail servers, etc all running on the one machine.
> The bonus of using virtual PC is that I can use ANY windows XP machine to
> boot up and run the servers.  No need to reinstall and configure for
> different hardware.
>
> It also seemed like a cool idea to try out.  I wanted to do it years ago but
> Virtual PC would not support a second network card, which was a requirement
> for making a firewall.

This is all so fascinating and grandiose that it boggles the mind. I
happen to love mind boggling schemes though, and the less I understand
about them the more inspiring they can seem. I'll have to try and digest
this all some more. But one question arises: why on XP? This is not asked
in an open sourcish, puritanical sort of way, but pragmatic as well. Were
I you, my reason for using XP would be because its virtual machine app
comes sort of preconfigured and could save me some labor and headaches
ascending the learning curve. You know, rather than trying to set up Bochs
or Xen or Colinux or one of the other Linux virtual machine setups. But
since I'd wimp out like that, it means I'm probably not much like you. So,
what is your motivation for using XP? In any case, it's sort of
interesting to see XP acting as a kind of boot manager for BL, and not
being allowed to play on the network. This has gotta be one of the more
interesting BL projects we've seen on this list for a long time . . .
maybe ever!

Keep up the good work.

James