[codejockey]

Lynch is right -- you need a hub or switch or router (in which case you don't n eed the router PC to do routing; it just becomes another workstation on the LAN). I completely missed that you did not include any of this hardware in your description, which was my fault, not yours! Anyway, you might consider using one of these solutions (I'd recommend a router with an integrated firewall) instead of using the PC to do routing, unless you just want to experiment and learn (which is an excellent reason). Note that your router PC will always have to be on for other workstations on the LAN to access the internet; using a separate router avoids this problem. You can pick up a four-port router fairly cheaply, especially if you don't need the latest and greatest capabilities (e.g., 108 Mbs wireless) -- and there are some very good deals available even on the current technology (e.g., http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...onics&n=507846) With router prices so reasonable, and the additional protection of a firewall, there's almost no reason to consider a hub or switch (my opinion).

Sorry for the confusion.

[Dirk Gently]

Oh, it's fine. Glad to have it cleared up now. You see, I was using a router for a while, a netgear... RP614, i think? Anyway, it was driving me nuts, wouldn't forward ports correctly, disconnected me continually... I tried everything, changing settings, MTU, even updating the firmware multiple times. Anyway, the reason I'm trying to go the "hard" way now is exactly as you said; I just want to experiment and learn ;-) Having a router and this separate PC would, of course, be redundant, but I think it would be very useful to have a linux terminal always available on my "network" (the "always on" is not a problem; the computer I'm using now, with Windows 2000, is usually on for weeks straight, although I like to boot into different OS's sometimes, which disrupts the connection of the other one...)
Anyway, I just found my old Redhat 8 CD's which reminded me of something, I need a DHCP server running to get the "client" computers to be able to connect automatically, don't I?? No wonder it wasn't working... If I installed RH8 could I use it in this way? I mean, does it come with the right tools? Thanks again!

[Squashman]

In one of my last networking classes I took, we setup our server with Red Hat 7.2. It was our Samba and DHCP server. It was also running Iptables and was doing NAT translation. I am trying to find the documentation for you in the pile of crap I have down in my server room.

[Squashman]

You could also try using IPcop.
http://www.ipcop.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/IPCop/WebHome

or Sentry Firewall Cd.
http://www.sentryfirewall.com/docs.html#overview

[Dirk Gently]

Hey, thanks again! I'd really prefer to use a somewhat "standard" Distro, for the learning and functionality aspects, although I don't know if I could get a GUI running (64MB RAM). I'll use something like IPcop or smoothwall if I have to, though. So I'd need NAT, done with iptables, along with DHCP, you think? "Server room"? That sounds impressive. Anyway, thanks for putting the effort into this, I really appreciate it!

[codejockey]

Note that you do not have to use dynamically-assigned IP addresses; instead, you can use static IP addresses for each workstation on your LAN, removing the need for a dhcp server. This is also a great first step, since you can verify that everything works properly before throwing DHCP into the mix.

Hope this helps.

[Dirk Gently]

Oh, well, that sounds just fine, then. But, I just realized, where do the client IP addresses come "into the mix" at all? I realized they aren't mentioned at all in those iptables rules I tried before (umm... is that a problem?)

[liviu]

Well, look what I found about your subject (iptables masquerade) :

http://www.linuxdig.com/howto/ldp/IP...rade-HOWTO.php

It's quite new, and there you can find a bunch of fresh HowTo's:
http://www.linuxdig.com/documents/howto.php

HTH,
liviu

[Dirk Gently]

Hey thanks, that looks very promising! I'm afraid I'm just about to leave home for a week but I'll work my way through it as soon as i get back again. Again, thanks to all for the help.