Home Network, step by step?

[R. Scott Kennan]

One more thing- the ifconfig may be muddled by the fact that I've
previously tried to get this going with seemingly unrelated
instructions, and failed. I tried to clean up the mess I made, to get
as close to a blank slate as possible, but I'm pretty sure I didn't
completely do accomplish that goal.


On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 00:48:23 -0500, R. Scott Kennan <rskennan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm sorry, but in my earlier message, I neglected to fully explain my
> setup. I can't afford $50 for a router (the holidays etc.), so I have
> to do it the hard way, at least for now. I'm a writer, and I want to
> be able to work on my own computer during the holidays without
> constantly being asked by my family to use the internet.
> 
> Ok, here's my setup: I have broadband over a surfboard modem from Cox
> cable. I have an ethernet card (D-link) that I just picked up, and a
> crossover cable that connects the two computers via this card, to
> another, identical one on the linux box. I've had this working using
> Win XP (very easily), but I really don't want to go back if I can
> avoid it.
> 
> Here's the results of ifconfig (I can't make heads or tails of it-
> which one is my incoming internet connection? ):
> 
> fwe0: flags=108802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         options=8<VLAN_MTU>
>         ether 02:e0:18:11:a5:2b
>         ch 1 dma -1
> bfe0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         options=8<VLAN_MTU>
>         inet6 fe80::2e0:18ff:fef9:96e9%bfe0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
>         inet 68.230.154.245 netmask 0xfffffe00 broadcast 68.230.155.255
>         ether 00:e0:18:f9:96:e9
>         media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
>         status: active
> rl0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         options=8<VLAN_MTU>
>         ether 00:11:95:1d:43:fd
>         media: Ethernet autoselect (10baseT/UTP)
>         status: no carrier
> plip0: flags=108810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
>         inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
>         inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
>         inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
> 
> Anyway, thank you all very much, I really appreciate the help.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:47:03 -0600, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.
> <kdk at daleco.biz> wrote:
> > 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
> >
>