"Internet sharing"

[renegadeab]

hello, I am implementing a change from Windows to Linux in our company.
I want to know how share an internet connection using mandrake 10.1.
I basically need to know how to do routing or bridging.

Do I need to install the server module or can i just have mandrake installed as a client to internet? (Im planning to make mandrake the one to connect to the internet and have the other PCs use it a the gateway.)

Im a newbie in linux

Thank you in advance

[AlexK]

The simplest way to accomplish this is to use a dedicated linux firewall/router OS, for example Mandrake Single/Multi network Firewall or Smoothwall or IPcop.

These are standalone OS's and will automatically handle your firewall and routing traffic for you. All you need is a low end computer with a cdrom drive and two network cards.
see www.smoothwall.org or www.ipcop.org, the Mandrake single/multi network firewalls can either be downloaded or brought from your local linux reseller.

In my opinion, smoothwall is the best out of these, hope this helps.

[renegadeab]

Thanks AlexK,
Smoothwall seems like a terrific product.
But unfortunately I cant use it in my network.
I cant afford to have a PC used just as Firewall.
I need to use the PC as well for office jobs (typing, printing, internet etc)

additional info: I am using a USB cable modem to connect to the Internet and a normal CAT5 on my network. TCPIP on both.

Thanks again

[AlexK]

i can see why you may be reluctlant to have a pc dedicated to firewalling and routing, but i can assure that it will run on minimal hardware e.g. Pentium 2 300 with 64 MB RAM and 1G disk space i.e. a machine you can pick up for $50 at a yard sale.

If you are keen on having a mandrake box doing the routing for you, you will need to install the routing packages (it should be under the server list during installation or in the MCC software update). Once this is done, you should be able to configure it via MCC.