In desperate need of inexpensive working Network card!

[Craig White]

James Carter wrote:
> 
> Great! Thank you for the great response I appreciate it. I only have one PCI
> slot, which is why I have to use the ISA card in the first place. What I am
> attempting to do is build a router with an old Packard Bell 486DX machine. I
> chose this machine as it holds a small footprint in a shelf on my desk. It
> is working great, aside from the PCI NIC not working nicely with the ISA
> NIC.
> 
> I would like to use the ISA NIC to serve as my WAN link, and the PCI NIC to
> serve as my internal private LAN gateway......thus doing simple NAT. With
> that said and done, I could then focus on the more advanced routing,
> firewalling and IDS. I think with what you have said thus far has given me
> enough to work with. I appreciate your help, and the help that I have
> received from the rest of the group here.
> 
> I currently do have an ISA card in the box but need to give it back as it
> was borrowed from a friend that has need of it. So I would need to purchase
> an ISA card.....and would like to stick with the 3com cards.
> 
> In anyones opinion, would it be better if I went with 2 ISA cards instead of
> 1 PCI and 1 ISA? I am also planning on incorporating a modem into the
> mix......so if 2 ISA cards would work that may be all the better.
> 
> Thanks again for all your help I do appreciate it.
> 
------------
Actually, that's the way I started with linux only I didn't use 3Com
cards, I used realtek cheapo ISA (which is a Novell 2000 clone) and I
had to learn about the double config on the first card (for the second
card) the hard way.

3Com is fine - Novell clone cards are fine AS LONG AS ...

1. You have a DOS boot disk

2. You have the proper configuration software to configure them because
they are jumperless and you have to use software to configure the IRQ &
Base Address.

3. Write this information down - a reboot / a linux install and the dog
licking itself endlessly will make you forget what was so clear 5
minutes ago. Maybe the CMS Syndrom is a personal issue.

4. Make it easy on yourself, install linuxconf even though it is
deprecated on Redhat 7.1 - DO NOT BOOT TO XWINDOWS. Use the
configuration information that you set up in step 2 to configure the
first card. 

In fact - as a router, Xwindows has no place but when you install Redhat
7.1 server - you get no configuration tools at all - hence my
recommendation to install linuxconf. Actually, I would recommend that
you use webmin <http://webadmin.sourceforge.net> but that is a bit tough
to use if you haven't x-windows and have not gotten networking up and
running.

Lastly, I would suggest that you use something earlier than RedHat 7.1
on this machine (6.2 or 7.0 which have the 2.2.x kernel) and not fool
with iptables yet (or the crippled ipchains on 2.4 kernels) and get
David Ranch's strong ipchains rulesets
<http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch/LINUX/TrinityOS/cHTML/TrinityOS-c-10.html#ss10.7> 
for MASQ'ing the internal lan.

Craig