RE: IP Masquerading & Windows Internet Sharing

["George Lenzer" <rh_list hotmail com>]

OK.  I don't know a whole lot about Win98 Internet sharing, but I have a 
somewhat related story.  It probably won't answer your question, but it will 
explain why some people think Win98 Internet Sharing is so great.  A few 
months ago, I helped a friend set up a Linux box (RH 6.0) as an IP Masq 
machine with Dial-on demand.  Strangely enough, it was the WORST Linux 
installation nightmare I have ever encountered.  I have never had as many 
problems getting things working as I did with his machine.  The network card 
refused to work, even though I've gotten the same exact card to work in a 
few machines.  PPP wouldn't work.  (His ISP is MSN)  And once we got the NIC 
and modem working, IP Masq qouldn't work.  I found out that 'ipchains' had 
replace 'ipfwadm'.  Once IP Masq was working, it took us forever to get 
Dial-on-demand working.  And then, it would dial out (apparently) randomly 
at all hours of the night.  (It turned out to be the RealPlayer on his 
family Win98 machine trying to phone home)  My IP Masq box at home took me 
about six hours to set up completely (Including all of my custom configs, 
copying several Gigs of data, etc...).  His took me three full weekends!  
And that didn't include trying to set up ANY kind of security at all.

Before I first tried Linux (about a year and a half ago), I was looking for 
an Internet sharing solution.  I was told about several Windows based 
products.  WinGate, NAT1000, Socks5, etc...  The only one I got to work well 
was WinGate, but it was more of a proxy server than an IP Masq product.  
After finding that it didn't suit my needs (it wouldn't pass certain ports 
by default and couldn't be modified to do so) I moved to Linux.

Now, the friend I mention above jumped off the Linux boat after about a 
week.  He went back to his beloved Win98 and then upgraded to Win98 Second 
Edition.  After he got that, he kept telling me that it was the greatest 
thing since sliced bread.  It provides a DHCP server for all the other Win9x 
clients on his home network.  (He despises hosts files)  It seems to pass 
all of the traffic he wants; E-mail, Web, RealAudio, etc...  But is it 
secure?  I would have to guess there are some exploits that would compromise 
his network.  There doesn't seem to be any mention of security in the set 
up.  (I only had a cursory glance)  But, it does require IE3 a least.  Why?  
Because there is an auto-configure for the proxy server that Win98 Internet 
Sharing apparently has.  According to my friend, it's everything he wanted.  
All he really want is a system to point and click through setup.\

Me, I prefer my IP Masq box.  But, I do believe that the only reason we had 
so many problems setting the box up is because he had a negative attitude to 
begin with.  Really.  I've seen it work this way many times.  I am pretty 
good at setting up Linux boxen these days, and this was the installation 
from hell.  (He does have a LOT of PnP stuff in his system)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jon Michael Brown [mailto:jon m brown usa net]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 8:19 PM
> To: Redhat List
> Subject: IP Masquerading & Windows Internet Sharing
>
>
> I know a lot of you will laugh at this question and probably want to come
> back at me with some funny remark, but be honest with me.  I am temporarily
> running Windows Internet Sharing for my home network while I'm working on 
> my
> Redhat machine.  Could somebody, seriously, compare Windows Internet 
> Sharing
> and Linux IP Masquerading for me.  What kind of security do I have with
> Internet Sharing?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jon

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