From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 13 16:46:48 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3052216A4CE for ; Mon, 13 Dec 2004 16:46:48 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ns1.tiadon.com (SMTP.tiadon.com [69.27.132.161]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 821BA43D46 for ; Mon, 13 Dec 2004 16:46:47 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from [69.27.131.0] ([69.27.131.0]) by ns1.tiadon.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211); Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:44:44 -0600 Message-ID: <41BDC787.40000@daleco.biz> Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:47:03 -0600 From: "Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P." User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041210 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "R. Scott Kennan" References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Dec 2004 16:44:45.0462 (UTC) FILETIME=[0D38BB60:01C4E133] cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Home Network, step by step? X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 16:46:48 -0000 R. Scott Kennan wrote: >Hey everyone, this is my first post. I'm a freebsd Newbie who really >doesn't know much at all yet, so please excuse my probably lame >question. > > > Welcome! No question is dumb, per se; it is worse to not ask and remain ignorant, IMHO. The quid pro quo is that it is more appropriate to ask the list on freebsd-questions; I would guess however that you couldn't have known that without reading the list charters, which seems like a bother (but may prove interesting to you later on). It does beg the question, "what's the newb list for", ;-) but that's not relevant to this post. At any rate, the question.... >At any rate, I need to network two computers- my BSD box, and one >running Mandrake Linux 9.2 (for now). I also need to share my >internet connection. Actually the internet connection sharing is more >important. What steps do I need to take? All the pages I've brought up >seem to assume some prior knowledge of both networking and/or Unix (I >have absoultely none), and I apparently don't even know enough to >recognise the information in the FreeBSD handbook. I installed FreeBSD >to learn, but I'm totally lost in this matter. > >If anyone can help me, or tell me to RTFM (as long as you point out >the manual) I'd appreciate it. Once again, Sorry for the dumb >question. Thanks. > >-R. Scott Kennan > Darren K. & others have been pointing you in the right general direction. Using an internet facing **router** instead of a switch would get you up and going with a relatively small investment of cash and even less of RTFM. To do it with no/less cash, (but a counterbalancing investment in time/knowledge gained) you'll need to use one of the computers you already have and NAT. If you use a broadband Inet connection, you'll need to run natd(8) and have a working knowledge of kernel building or kldloading along with familiarity with ipfw(8); if you have a PPP or PPPOE type connection, you may be able to run your ppp with the -nat option, as I do at home (dialup; too many feet out of town here in the sticks....) As for routers, I have used the LinkSys BEFSR41 and the D-Link DI-604* for this purpose in SOHO environments with {relatively} few problems. Once I learned enough about FreeBSD, I began to switch out these small devices for old computers (of which I have a plethora), in order to have more fine-grained control of things (particularly firewalling and offering more services to the LAN machines). To learn the basics of NAT (Network Address Translation), you should read the Handbook subchapter on "Network Address Translation" in the "Advanced Networking Chapter" (which in my current doc build is section .8 of chapter 24 [24.8]. I think my copy is relatively up to date ... if your doc build [assuming you have one] is older, the numbering system may vary slightly. To learn the specifics, there is a section called "RUNNING NATD" in the natd(8) manual page; it covers the necessary information for enabling natd in the kernel, adding rules to ipfw(8), and so on. Good luck, and welcome to FreeBSD! Kevin Kinsey *Heck, buy pizza for the family and I'll send ya the Dlink.... :-D