Clive Dove <chdove@rogers.com> wrote in message news:<eopRa.92453$sI91.78875@news04.bloor.is.net.c able.rogers.com>...
> steve wrote:
>
> > This may attract some laughs but I am having trouble getting past move
> > 1.
> >
> > I want to set up something like this:
> >
> >
> > network modem
> > Intel Box ---------------- Windoze Box ------------------ ISP
> > --------- -----------
> > Red Hat 7.2 Windows ME
> > Oracle 8i MS Office
> > Oracle clients
> > e.g. Warehouse
> > Builder
> > email client
> > Web browser
> > |
> > |
> > Printer
> > -------
> >
> > All the docs start by saying 'with your IP Address...'
> >
> > The questions are:
> >
> > - I suppose I will need an IP address for both the Linux and Windoze
> > boxes. Can I just make them up or do I have to get them from
> > somewhere?
> > - My ISP uses dynamic IP assignment - I hever know what I will get
> > from one session to the next. If I have already assigned my own IP
> > Address to the MS box, what happens when I go on-line.
> >
> > I'm pretty confused here, I can tell ya.
> >
> > TIA
>

That is a bloody brilliant follow up and thanks to Mark Taylor, too. I
think I get it, or at least it's a good start.

Got a couple more questions...below.

>
> Your Windows box is serving the dual purpose of being a workstation and
> a router/gateway between your local net and the internet.
>
> So the WAN side of the windows box acquires the ip address from the isp
> and the LAN side has an ip address in a private ip range such as
> 192.168.1.x. Addresses in the private range do not appear on the
> internet.
>
> So, if you assign 192.168.1.1 to the windows box and 192.168.1.2 to the
> linux box (and 192.168.1.3 or higher to any additional boxes that you
> may wish to hang on to the net through a hub) then:
> The routing table in the linux box would have 192.168.1.1 as its default
> routing.
>
> The windows box would have the public gateway address assigned by the
> isp as its default route and 192.168.1.1 as its route to the private
> network.
>
> The two ip address ranges are not affected by each other. The router
> software in the windows box performs network address translation.
>
> Of course, as your isp assigns dynamic ip addresses, this does not allow
> you to have a publicly accessible server on the private net, but that
> is contrary to the suthorized use policy anyway.
>
> Your scheme is the reverse of what most people do who use computers as
> routers. Usually they prefer to use a linux box as the router.

That would be my eventual aim. The only reason that I have proposed
this setup is because I regularly use the MS box for on-line work and
the Linux box is, for the moment, an Oracle development setup. In
other words, the MS box - ISP setup works and what ain't broke for the
moment stays put especially as I will be tinkering about in an area I
clearly have almost no knowledge of - i.e. networking.

The systems, for the most part, have little in common except for one
important area. Many of the Oracle development tools I use are windows
based and I prefer to run Oracle under Linux. I'm a bit leary of WINE
or something like it, at the moment. Apart from the convenience of
printer sharing, etc., the only compelling reason to network the
systems at all is for development in client-server mode.

As an alternative to ISP-MS-Linux, would ISP-Linux-MS have any large
advantages given my requirements?

>
> You should seriously consider obtaining a 4 port cable/dsl router (such
> as the Linksys BEFSR41) to place between your two computers and your
> broadband router. This device draws very little power, has no harddrive
> or monitor, is easily configured from any computer connected to the lan
> side using a browser, and relieves one of your computers from having to
> stay running 24/7/365 for the benefit of the other computer(s).
> Such a router handles the WAN side using DHCP or PPPoE or static ip,
> depending on the requirements of the isp and internally uses DHCP or
> static ip to assign the private ip addresses.
> Your computers would all each have only one ethernet card and one ip
> address and that ip would be in the private range which is a protection
> against intruders. Any additional boxes would get their ip addresses
> using DHCP.

I'm not sure of the role of the router that you suggest. Does it look
something like this:

+--------------+ +--------------+
|Intel Box | |Windoze Box |
| | | |
| Network card | | Network card |
| (192.168.1.2)| | (192.168.1.1)|
+------+-------+ +------+-------+
| |
| |
| +--------+ +
+--------------+ Router +------------+
+----+---+
|
+--------+--------+
| Modem |
|(nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn)| -- Assigned by ISP
+--------+--------+
|
ISP

And, if so, do I have to yank the modem out of the MS box or can I use
and external modem I happen to have lying around somewhere - probably
in the fishing tackle box.

Thanks again for your help, guys, this is looking less scarey by the
moment.

TIA

Steve