On Tue, 2003-12-30 at 20:44, Kevin Brown wrote:
> > I have looked around the net a bit and can not figure what I do and do
> > not need to know.
> >
> > I am building a desktop/ firewall for my girlfriend that has cox. As
> > her mother hates me I will not have access to the cable modem before I
> > drop off the computer, and will not have a ton of time to configure the
> > computer before getting something thrown at me. The computer that I am
> > giving away will be protecting the rest of the net from the virus ridden
> > piece of s* that my girlfriend's mom will not let me fix.All I know
> > about the cable modem is that it is not a router and that it has cat-5
> > out. I have no experiece with such things so I am hoping that you could
> > tell me of the ramifications *or point me to a guide*.
> >
> > Should I do anything special when I install debian? (should I tell it a
> > bs static ip or what?)
>
> It will need the DHCP client to get an address from cox (and possibly a DHCP
> server for the systems in the house).
>
> > Will I need to find drivers?
>
> Cable Modems are transparent transeiver devices to convert the cable WAN signals
> to cat5 ethernet standards.
>
> > How much time should I assume that I will need to invest to get firewall
> > builder setup?
>
> Depends on how secure you want to make it and other needs. A basic config will
> need to do NAT and prevent outside systems from getting to or through the debian
> router otherwise.
>
I think NAT is a bit much (personal opinion). I have a setup similar to
what you're describing. I have my internal machines using the
firewall/router as a gateway and have ip_forwarding enabled.
Here's a link similar to the how-to I used:
http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Firewall-HOWTO.html
Getting this thing going should be simple, securing it is a different
matter. I've had to make several adjustments to the firewall rules since
I got it going. Make sure you can ssh into this machine from the outside
if they expect you to maintain this system.
Good luck.
Bart
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