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The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Alternative Operating Systems => Topic started by: jj on July 14, 2004, 07:45:30 PM

Title: Software router i suppose
Post by: jj on July 14, 2004, 07:45:30 PM
Hi peeps

After a bit of advice, and i dont want adive like us elinux or buy a hardware/router, cause i want to do what i want to do with exisiting hardware and software I can download.

Right got a gateway pee cee compaq deskpro 350 mhz pentium II, 64mb ram, win win2kpro on it, its got two nics, and my usb broadband modemn is connected to this.

I have got a higher spece pee cee also runiing win2kpro and a laptop running p2 266, 64 mb of ram running win98se

I have got the network up and running, but obvioulsy the other pee cee cant see the laptop cause they are connected to different nic, and so are on diff network segments.

I wont to be able to share the internet between all the three pee cees and for all three pee cees to be able to share each others resources directly.

Now I know if I was running winxpro on the gatway machine i could just use that wondeful feature called bridiging, but im not, so i cant.

SO waht i really want is your lots advice on either software that can do that for me, or basically a software router i can set up on the gatway machine.  Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: Ilwrath on July 14, 2004, 08:52:22 PM
Quote

Right got a gateway pee cee compaq deskpro 350 mhz pentium II, 64mb ram, win win2kpro on it, its got two nics, and my usb broadband modemn is connected to this.


So, really, it has THREE NICs, as the USB connection from the BB modem is also an emulated NIC.

I find pictures are worth a few thousand words, especially when we are seperated by the common language of English...  

So, right now, you've got something like
Code: [Select]

GATEWAY PC -----> Internet
 |     |
PC1   PC2


What you're missing is the connection between PC1 and PC2.  (The gateway won't let those two boxes see each other)  I've not messed with having three logical NICs in the Win2k box before...  There SHOULD be a way to do what you're asking, but I'm not positive my idea will work.  

You might be able to do it by setting the default settings for each NIC like this:

Internet NIC connection:
[assigned by ISP] (shouldn't need to do anything here)

Gateway PC PC1 NIC:
IP: 192.168.0.1
Gateway Mask: 255.255.255.127

Gateway PC PC2 NIC:
IP: 192.168.0.128
Gateway Mask: 255.255.255.127

Then, you should be able to add the following two commands from a DOS prompt:

route -p add 192.168.0.1 mask 255.255.255.127 192.168.0.127 metric 1

route -p add 192.168.0.128 mask 255.255.255.127 192.168.0.1 metric 1

This adds two static routes to your registry.  One for getting from 192.168.0.1 subnet to 192.168.0.128, and one for the inverse, getting from 128 back to 1.

Of course, this is somewhat theoretical, since I haven't tried it.  The really simple way is to just get a repeating hub off the gateway PC.  That way, you don't need a NIC, subnet, and static routing information for each and every computer you want to connect.  :-)
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: jj on July 14, 2004, 09:35:43 PM
Thnaks for the reply, ill give it a try when i get chance
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: adz on July 18, 2004, 12:33:15 PM
The best solution for your current situation would be a cheap 5 port mini-swith/hub, however, if you wish to keep your existing hardware setup, I would suggest installing a linux distro on the gateway machine along with a nifty little software firewall/router called Firestarter. I know thats not what you wanted to hear, but it really is the only solution I can think of as I personally wouldn't even bother trying to do that with Windows. Additionally, you could also install Samba and use the gateway machine as a secure file server on your home network. This here (http://www.linuxathome.net/rh72_minihowto.php) will give you a little info on whats involved.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: the_leander on August 18, 2004, 06:49:54 AM
I personally use ipcop (http://www.ipcop.org) as a perminant firewall router, and beyond a few teathing troubles I had getting it settup (I'd fouled up on the ppp config - fixed after 5 minutes of head scratching) it has ran perfectly ever since, I have used BeOS, Linux (Morphix), Zeta and windows 2000 through it without a single issue thus far.

As with the above poster, I would have to say if you are going to do this with windows expect no end of troubles in terms of getting things going in the way that you want time. Windows just does not make for an easy gateway setup.

Again its not what you probably wanted to hear, but its the best advice I can offer.

My router is a compaq deskpro (small form factor) EN 6350, Pentium 2, 64mb ram 6Gb hard disk.

IPcop is controled through a web interface and is not accessable from the outside, though initial install is done via terminal. (so you'll need your monitor and keyboard first time around)
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: Piru on August 18, 2004, 07:47:27 AM
@JJ
I know this isn't the solution for you (you explicitly said no linux), but since it was so easy (I never thought it'd be THAT easy)... I did this by installing Debian GNU/Linux to the routing machine and:
apt-get install ipmasq

Since I had both NICs already set up, it worked out of the box. For sharing network I installed samba and smbfs (oh, and that was a bit more work).
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: adz on August 18, 2004, 09:57:59 AM
ClarkConnect is another goodie, its fully self contained and it pretty much does everything. Like IPCop, it is managed via a web interface.

ClarkConnect (http://www.clarkconnect.org/webapp/downloads.jsp)

For this kind of task, you can't look at anything but Linux, sorry.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: whabang on August 18, 2004, 10:42:19 AM
*cough* *cough*
There is a Windows-alternative! It's called 602Lan suite 2004 (http://www.software602.com/products/ls/), and it's a complete NAT/DHCP/WEB/POP3/SMTP/FTP/Proxy server. It's easy to configure, and it doesn't take much recources. The NAT-service should give you the functionality you need.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: adz on August 18, 2004, 11:13:31 AM
Quote
There is a Windows-alternative!


How can it be a Windows alternative when you need Windows to run it :-D :-D :-D Besides, its not totally free. Plus the system requirements (http://www.software602.com/products/ls/system.html) seem a little too restrictive. ClarkConnect, IPCop etc. etc. are totally free and can even be used on something as old as a 486. Just putting in another two cents worth.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: whabang on August 18, 2004, 11:15:15 AM
OK, it's a Windows-requiring alternative. Satisfied? :-P

It's free, as long as you have five, or less users.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: jj on August 18, 2004, 11:20:47 AM
Holly cow, my thread just reappeared from no where, anyway I got it sorted, just installed xp on gateway machine and bridged the two connections, works like a charm.

On a differnet note, I have got a 266MHz pentium 2 dell laptop with 64mb or ram,I tried win98se, win2kpro on it, and both were so slow booting and doing anything it was unfunny, so for a lugh i thought ill install xp, should be funny, u could have knocked me over with a feather it boots in no time, and is very responsive, i was flabbergasted, never expected it to be more responsive than win98 on such a low spec machine
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: adz on August 18, 2004, 11:22:24 AM
Quote

whabang wrote:
OK, it's a Windows-requiring alternative. Satisfied? :-P



Yes ;-) :-P

However, I should give credit where credit is due, you came up with a Windows based solution, which is what the original poster wanted in the first place :-)
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: Casper on August 18, 2004, 11:45:17 AM
Quote

On a differnet note, I have got a 266MHz pentium 2 dell laptop with 64mb or ram,I tried win98se, win2kpro on it, and both were so slow booting and doing anything it was unfunny, so for a lugh i thought ill install xp, should be funny, u could have knocked me over with a feather it boots in no time, and is very responsive, i was flabbergasted, never expected it to be more responsive than win98 on such a low spec machine


The Windows XP boot time is a bit of an illusion since they moved the loading of a couple of things (such as services) to after the desktop has popped up. So you see the desktop quicker but it's rather unresponsive until everything's been loaded.

I also noted a speed increase, especially in games, when I installed XP on an old AMD K6 450Mhz instead of Windows Me, so they've definatly improved it.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: billchase on August 18, 2004, 12:31:53 PM
Coyote Linux works great.  It is small enough to fit
on a floppy disk.  The coyote disk can be created and
setup inside of windows (very easy).  Once you have
created the floppy with the setup program, just boot
with that disk and you should be up and running.

C Snyder
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: rayt on August 18, 2004, 02:51:52 PM
yeah you should run linux on your gateway.. I have a linux gateway since some years and its now running a few months non stop without a problem.. and you could also run mldonkey for example on linux and control it with a windoze gui client.. works very well..
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: jj on August 18, 2004, 02:55:24 PM
Well i know all the trollers and haters are going to jump on me, but xp pro is a very fast, stable, easy to use, intutive OS.  Cant see what it gets knocked so much(I know there a re still problems), but on the whole a very mature and user friendly OS.

I do a similar thing, just bridge the two connections, and the run winmx on the gateway machine and use realvnc to control it
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: whabang on August 18, 2004, 03:20:07 PM
JJ,

It's because of the security flaws, and M$' near monopoly on the commercial OS market.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: DanDude on August 18, 2004, 03:41:38 PM
Normally I don't help ppl with pc's but I'm make this exception.

Do you have an option called "Internet Connection Sharing"?  In XP, it's under Properties, Advanced settings from your connection in your "View Network Connections" folder.  "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection" should have a checkmark.  If not, turn it on.  It might ask you which network to share with and select the one that uses your LAN.  Viola!
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: jj on August 18, 2004, 04:01:54 PM
@ DANDUDE

I dont normal answer people with a chip on their shoulder, but if you are going to go out of your way to help a pee cee user lol, then give the correct advice eh....

Thanks for the help!!!!

But if you read the post i was looking for an easy way to bridge two seperate network segments under win2kPro as easily as u can with xp by using the bridge connection feature.
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: kevh100 on August 18, 2004, 04:25:59 PM
If you're turning an old PC into a software router don't forget SmoothWall (http://www.smoothwall.org). No problems with it as yet and also loads of mods added such as content & virus filtering.

Kev
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: jj on August 18, 2004, 04:43:38 PM
Thanks everyone for their elp and suggestions, I will try that smoothwall, im after a realiable firewall , apart form zonealarm, cause the free verison just dont like internet connection sharing and even the pro version dont work all the time, sometimes lets traffic trought he gateway to other pee cee, other times no
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: kevh100 on August 18, 2004, 05:19:15 PM
Quote
Thanks everyone for their elp and suggestions, I will try that smoothwall, im after a realiable firewall
If you need any help along the way then I'd recommend the forums are great. Alternatively feel free to PM me, especially if you want help setting up the content filtering & AV because that's the mod I made :)

Kev
Title: Re: Software router i suppose
Post by: Casper on August 18, 2004, 05:42:52 PM
Quote

JJ wrote:
I do a similar thing, just bridge the two connections, and the run winmx on the gateway machine and use realvnc to control it


I would recommend using the built-in Remote Desktop to control Windows XP unless you have an OS other than Windows (such as AmigaOS or Linux) that needs to control it since it's much faster that RealVNC. Just right-click on "My Computer", select properties, go to the Remote tab and check "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer". There are Remote Desktop clients for all Windows versions on the Windows XP CD. It's already installed in XP under Start Menu / All Programs / Accessories / Communications / Remote Desktop Connection.

If you're worried about security, just add a rule to the firewall to allow only local addresses to connect to port 3389.