[NTLUG:Discuss] Router Needed?

[Greg Edwards]

Kenneth Loafman wrote:
> What I want is for them to have access so they can check their mail.  I 
> would prefer that they not have any access to our net at all.  That 
> said, I suspect that if an investor wanted to print, we'd bend over 
> backwards to make sure he could do so.  What would the solution be then?
> 
> ...Ken
> 

Ken,

One HUGE advantage of using a Linux box as your firewall/router as 
opposed to an appliance is being able to simply configure something like 
this.

If your firewall/router is a Linux box you can run a NIC out of it to a 
hub in the conference room and assign your DHCP server to run a set of 
IPs to match the number of ports on the hub (4/8/16).  Set your firewall 
rules to NAT that range and route between the outside and that NIC.  You 
can also poke a hole in the route that opens a printer on a specific 
addr to be seen by that NIC.


    ----------           -----------------           ----------
   | Internet | ------- | firewall/router | ------- | intranet |
    ----------           -----------------           ----------
                                |                         |
                                |                         |
                              -----                   ---------
                             | hub |                 | printer |
                              -----                   ---------
                ---------     | | |     ---------
               | guest 1 | ---     --- | guest x |
                ---------               ---------


If you're using a Linux firewall/router the cost to expand is 1 NIC, 1 
hub, and some cable.  Other than access to the printer your intranet is 
completely isolated from the conference room and you can keep the 
clients protected while on your connection.  With a little effort you 
could even open an NFS or Samba mounted dir somewhere on your intranet 
so they could exchange data with you.

Good luck,
-- 
Greg Edwards

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