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Date:      Sat, 6 Mar 1999 04:37:29 -0600
From:      "justin honold" <jhonold@primary.net>
To:        "questions" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   riddle me this
Message-ID:  <000301be67bd$7342f380$0201a8c0@justin.freebsd>

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i live in the st louis metropolitan area, and we have cable internet service
available to us.  i would prefer to use dsl for many reasons, but
unfortunately it won't be available here for some time.  our current
solution is not bidirectional -- it uses modem for the uplink and 3com's
cable modem vsp for downlink.  this product only has (and probably only
will) a driver for win9x.  they actively discourage use of proxy servers,
and go so far as to check for the standard ones via tcp requests (eg
wingate, sygate, etc).  i have proven wingate to work on a number of
clients' machines, but i'm concerned with win9x's security (eg getting
locked up because i decided to use irc), and i want to be able to provide
services if i see fit, even if it's only with a modem uplink.

i want freebsd.

my question is this: assuming that the 3com drivers will be able to detect
connections/disconnections using a ppp -aliased connection, would i be able
to hack my way through nat to get a sitation like this?

[1] freebsd has the modem, maintains the internet connection, and shares it
via ppp -alias (or nat if necessary)

[2] win9x has the cable modem and runs wingate as a proxy server

[3] freebsd uses win9x as a gateway so it can download using cable

i'm relatively sure (drivers willing) that i could ppp -alias the modem
connection and use wingate to serve my lan, but that would leave my freebsd
box without a fast downlink.  would there be a way i could tell freebsd to
use win9x's gateway to download, but not to upload?  if i pull this off,
there's no way charter would be able to detect any services running, because
i could just shut them off (currently my only open port is 23, and i could
move that to a high-range port that probably wouldn't be scanned).  i don't
feel particularly guilty about doing this because they're using a win9x-only
solution, they don't provide services for proxy servers even if you offer to
pay extra, and the hidden costs are a mess ($100 for installation on a win9x
machine, which HAS to be done -- this despite the fact that i have istalled
these devices on miscellaneous sites and helped them resolve driver issues
via troubleshooting), they force you to get cable television (which i don't
care about, and REALLY won't care about when i get a fast connection), they
force you to lease the crappy cable modem, etc.  this could be a fun project
for me.  what do you think? :D



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