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Date:      Wed, 12 Jan 2000 20:32:19 -0700
From:      "Duke Normandin" <01031149@3web.net>
To:        <jim@nasby.net>
Cc:        "freebsd-questions" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Networking Diagram
Message-ID:  <004a01bf5d77$5cff7480$759cc5d1@webserver>

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From: Jim C. Nasby <jim@nasby.net>
To: Duke Normandin <01031149@3web.net>
Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 3:10 PM
Subject: Re: Networking Diagram


>I think the question you should really be asking is 'what does each of
>these things do?' Once you know that, it's easy to determin what you need
>to be running.
>
>To run down your list:
>
>ipfw is used for creating a firewall. This is a little confusing because
>   the functionality provided by ipfw is sometimes used by other programs,
>   normally in the form of the 'divert' setting. natd is an example of this.
>
>inetd could be considered the 'operator' for many IP services. Without inted,
>   you would need to run a daemon for just about every single IP protocol
>   that you wanted to allow. Worse, you'd need to keep all these daemons
>   running 24x7, even if the port was only used once in a great while. The
>   daemons would also have to be able to handle multiple connections (though,
>   most do this anyway). Instead of this, you can used inetd. inetd will
>   bind to a set of ports (controled by inetd.conf) and when a request
>   comes in on one of those ports, it will run a specific program, or
>   handle the request internally.
>
>named is the daemon that is responsible for serving DNS requests. I'm not
>   100% certain, but I think that you only need to run it if you actually
>   want to have a name server.
>
>ifconfig is just a command, not a daemon. It stands for InterFace
>   CONFIGurator, or at least it should ;) This is the command you use to
>   assign IP addresses to network cards, etc. It is also used by
>   /etc/rc.network at bootup to configure everything per the settings in
>   rc.conf.
>
>natd is what allows Network Address Translation. NAT basically allows you
>   to run an internal network with (RFC1918?) IPs (such as 10.x.x.x), and
>   still allow those machines to talk to the internet. When natd sees an
>   IP packet headed for a 'real' IP from a RFC1918 IP, it will change the
>   from address to the address that NAT is bound to. When packets come back
>   in, the reverse occurs. This allows you to connect a large number of
>   computers to the Internet with a single IP. It also provides some
>   security, since RFC1918 IPs are generally blocked by a lot of internet
>   routers.
>
>bind I'm not real familiar with bind... I just know it's used by some
>   services.
>
>routed is a routing protocol daemon. It allows routers to talk to each
>   other to help determin the best route to an address. If you don't
>   know what it does, you probably don't need to run it.
>
>For documentation, an excellent place to start is reading the man pages
>for the different commands. Another good trick is to grep /etc for 'key
>phrases'. For example, to see where nat is used, 'grep -v nat /etc/*'.
>You should also study /etc/defaults/rc.conf and /etc/rc*.
>
>Finally, you might want to pick up a copy of 'The Red Book'... see
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0131510517/distributednet
>
>Hope this helps. }:8)


It does and it's a start for my present concerns and future project! Thanks a
bunch!

-duke




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