From owner-freebsd-hardware Tue Nov 25 08:11:26 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id IAA22884 for hardware-outgoing; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 08:11:26 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hardware) Received: from anlsun.ebr.anlw.anl.gov (anlsun.ebr.anlw.anl.gov [141.221.1.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id IAA22876 for ; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 08:11:23 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from cmott@srv.net) Received: from darkstar.home (dialin3.anlw.anl.gov [141.221.254.103]) by anlsun.ebr.anlw.anl.gov (8.6.11/8.6.11) with SMTP id JAA05141; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:11:18 -0700 Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:10:46 -0700 (MST) From: Charles Mott X-Sender: cmott@darkstar.home Reply-To: Charles Mott To: Timothy J Luoma cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: lowest end FBSD router machine possible In-Reply-To: <199711251459.JAA08753@luomat.peak.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Tue, 25 Nov 1997, Timothy J Luoma wrote: > I am looking to put together a low low end FreeBSD machine to ask > as a ``router'' (is that the right term?) to do what I think it > called `IP-Masquerading' [...] > I need to know how low-end I can go. 486dx/66? What kind of > additional hardware? A 486 with 16 meg of ram should be fine to start out with. > Thanks for any help you might be able to provide. I've never done > this before but have some UNIX experience (NeXTStep). Get familiar with FreeBSD first and then install natd (network address translation daemon) available at ftp://ftp.suutari.iki.fi/pub/natd It will be a little tricky for you to start out with, but if you are persistent, things will work. There are also alternatives to natd (Linux and a FreeBSD kernel modification). At the moment, you will need two ethernet cards with natd, one to connect to your cable modem and one to connect to your local network with your other home computer(s). Depending on the specific cable system you have, there can be some special things to do. Some systems get their addresses through DHCP. Some other systems have a fancier address registration mechanism. For an example, see a writeup on the San Diego Road Runner system: http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/rr/rr.html Two more things about cable modems. First, the systems are sometimes behind unusual firewalls (some ports blocked, others redirected). Second, U.S. cable companies are managed by really stupid people, so they may not be able to scale their internet systems as the user base grows. Charles Mott