Another basic networking question.

[Nifty Fedora Mitch]

On Thu, Apr 02, 2009 at 01:04:37PM +1100, Simon Slater wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-04-01 at 18:37 -0700, Nifty Fedora Mitch wrote:
> > One question per post please.
> > 
> Sorry, I didn't want to start different threads that come back to the
> one issue, which would be how different physical pieces of equipment get
> addressed and so know who to talk to or go through.
> 
> > The only requirement is that they have a unique MAC address.
> > With Ether-switches and trunking it is possible to improve 
> > bandwidth in some cases.   These are the cases where if you
> > have to ask why or how you should not.
> > 
> I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of the many ways to do thing in
> Linux.  Fedora has been the platform I've used since FC1, but only now
> am I getting adventurous and improving how things are setup here.
> 
> > The most common case for the use of two nics is to access
> > two nets.  It is not necessary to route between networks.
> > One strategy is to dedicate a net for storage traffic and
> > another network for some other communication traffic.
> > 
> > The second common case is to act as a network gateway, firewall, NAT
> > or bridge etc...  i.e. a router.
> > 
> Yes, a firewall gateway is the intended setup.  Thanks.

This is a 'bigger than a breadbox' topic....
Download some of the router documents that Cisco has on line
so you can understand what you want to do.  All the foundation
stuff can be done in Linux and mostly the language is the
same even when the user interface differs.

Simplistic explanation....
A firewall will block or redirrect specific traffic comming in.
A gateway will direct, block or filter traffic going out.

Stick to IPv4 the public info on the net is richer.

To start block all traffic then open exactly one thing at
a time.   

Me, I like having an inexpensive Linksys or Netgear box as the first
resource that touches the Internet.   If I am consulting I specify
a small Cisco router...   At home mine are all second hand used
cast off.  I use them in NAT mode and have a DHCP address space as well
as fixed addresses for my stable linux boxes.    I never power up a new
box (Linux or WindowZ) except behind a NAT box and the first thing I
do is an update to the OS and configure stuff.

-- 
	T o m  M i t c h e l l 
	Found me a new hat, now what?