Configuring Cisco 831 for Cable Internet Access on My LAN

[alexanderkmoore]

Hello,

I have a Cisco 831 router my employer lent me to play around with.

I also have a LinkSys E4500 wireless router but for the moment I'd like to leave this out of the picture entirely just to say I configured a Cisco router via command line and got my Internet working.

Ethernet0
Ethernet1
FastEthernet1
FastEthernet2
FastEthernet3
FastEthernet4

What I don't understand is why there are two Ethernet ports showing:
Ethernet0
Ethernet1

I'm assuming one of these is the WAN that needs to be configured for DHCP as I'm on a Cable Internet connection but I'm not sure which one. Is 0 for the internal LAN and 1 for the WAN?

If so then I would do something like

conf t
interface Eth0
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
no shut
exit

interface Eth1
ip address dhcp
no shut
exit

I'm probably missing quite a bit.
Would NAT be enabled by default?
I heard something about the following two commands:

ip nat inside
ip nat outside

Are these at all relevant to what I need to do?
I've got a couple of desktops that I'd like to plug into the LAN ports and give Internet access to.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Alexander

[nini09]

The Ethernet0 is for LAN side but for WAN side, it can use different interface name dependent on WAN interface type.

[Krendoshazin]

Ethernet1 should be your outside interface which will grab an IP from your ISP via DHCP; Ethernet0 will be a virtual interface for the inside network which will become your gateway interface for all connected devices.