[CLUE-Tech] linux & broadband

[Mark Cuny]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, David Anselmi wrote:

> Hmmm...
>
> Does your cable modem have an ethernet port on it?  If so, you might get
> a hub/switch and plug it, the windows box, and the linux box in together
> (they'd all be on the same lan then and the cable modem would be the
> only thing doing gateway/routing).
>
> THIS IS PROBABLY NOT VERY SECURE.  But it may be as secure as what you
> propose.
>
> You can get a 5 port switch for about $50.  This approach is simpler and
> may get you up and running more easily than trying to set up
> routing/filtering on either box.

There is another issue with this: Both the Linux box and the Windows
box would be asking for IPs (DHCP I am assuming).  I noticed that
Himanshu's email address is @home.com.  I'm not sure what the policies
of @home are in Denver.  I just moved to Denver from Kansas City.  In
Kansas, it was Comcast at home, and their policy was to charge you more
if you wanted more than 1 DHCP address.  It is only secure as the two
machines on the network.

> If you are worried about security and don't want to set up the linux box
> as a firewall (and can't or won't set up the windows box as a firewall),
> you can get a firewall box from Linksys.  It costs about $100-$150 and
> comes with 2-4 ports.  People on this list have said it is easy to set
> up and it may take the place of a switch for you.

< ... snip ... >
> Himanshu Sharma wrote:
>
> > Hi,I am new to Linux. I am trying to configure it so I can connect to
> > the internet. I have another machine running windows and connected to
> > the net via a cable modem. I want to use the windows machine as a
> > gateway and network the linux box to this machine. I am completely
> > clueless on how to go about doing it. Any help would be
> > appreciated. thanks,himanshu

Also, on Thursday Himanshu Sharma wrote:
> I am running Red Hat release 7.0 (Guinness), OS release 2.2.16-22.
> Is this all the information you need?

Welcome to the world of Linux!  It can be very frustrating at times,
but I think you will find it to be well worth your time.  David is
right, getting a hub is the quickest and easiest solution.  This will
get you up and running, however, you will not learn much from this
solution.  I have never tried the firewall box, but others have told
me that it works great.

In order to use one of your computers as a gateway, you will need two
ethernet cards in the gateway computer.  Here's a diagram:

  Internet == Cable modem  -- Gateway computer -- second computer

Where: == is the cable line from the outside of your house to the
cable modem
       -- is ethernet cable

Which version of Windows are you running?  Windows NT/2000 have built
in support for networking of this sort.  Windows 9x/ME can support it,
but it is much trickier and you have to download other software to get
it done.

If you want to attempt a Linux solution, here is another link that is
very helpful (Cable Modem Providers HOWTO).
HTML Version:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Cable-Modem/index.html
Text Version:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Cable-Modem


A little about myself, since I decided to de-lurk.  I am an all-around
computer geek.  I've been concentrating in Linux for the past 6 years
(started out with kernel 1.2.something), but have done a bit of
everything in the computer field.  I just moved here from Olathe, KS
(a suburb of Kansas City) and am now living in southern Denver.


- Mark Cuny