Sharing internet access

[Domin]

I've recently been experienting with netwroking. I have 2 Linux computers (running Mandrake 7 and 8) that I'm trying to network. I got 'em all hooked up and stuff and they can ping each other but now I'm trying to share my 56k connection between the two of 'em (I'll eventually connect them to my cable upstairs). I've followed the Internet Sharing NHF but I can't ping/view websites from my box without the connection. Please help me!

P.S. I didn't set up a firewall but that shouldn't matter, should it?

[Domin]

Anyone?? Please help!

[godot]

which kernel are you running, i know how to do it with iptables in kernel 2.4
all you need to do is this

/sbin/iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -j ACCEPT
/sbin/iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
/sbin/iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0

[Domin]

The gateway has 2.4 but the other is 2.2 or whatever comes with Mandrake 7.0.

[Domin]

Will it work with this setup? Should I try updating to 2.4 on the other machine? God, which machine would I type that on?

[yogee]

Closely watching for a reply also! ;)

[Domin]

*bumper cars*

[zumbi50]

Your firewall concern is really a security concern. Anytime you have an always-on connection you should give a thought to security.

There is a possible solution to both your security and connection sharing problems which has nothing to do with Linux. Run out and buy a Linksys router, DHCP server & 4-port switch... they retail for $125 but you can find 'em for $100 in the U.S. if you look around. Hook this up to your cable connection and all your boxes, *nix and Windows can share the connection happily forever after.

It's what I did after I got tired of fiddling around trying to make the Windows or Linux boxes into the gateway. Even a cheap router goes down less often than a box, which is one reason why this is a more typical small business solution too.

[FroggySwamp]

Hey Guys,

Got another suggestion as well. If you are going to run a dedicated box for a firewall, have a look at Astaro (http://www.astaro.com) . I found this a few monthes a go, and wow. It is free for home/personal use, and uses a very nice filter running on a Debian OS. The Install is about 60 megs all said and done, I use a POS Pentium 166 with 196 megs of old school EDO in it, and it handles my napster, web, and dev servers very nicely. If you have DHCP, make sure to look in the contrib section of their FTP for the hack to make DHCP work for cable. I think the new beta has support for PPPoA already built in, and PPP.

Hope this helped! :D