Chris Bartram writes:
>[John Allyn-Day writes]:
>> I have a very small and very inexpensive network.  I use an old 386 as a
>> print server, with Novell DOS, Netware Lite and Win 3.1.  I would like to
>> add to this my dialup ISDN connection to my ISP. At the moment the
>> connection is available only on a single PC and I want the connection to be
>> available to other PCs on the network.  What I am looking for is a piece of
>> software that will run as a router under Win 3.1 so that I can connect my
>> network to my ISP (obviously I'm going to have to add TCP/IP to my PCs).
>> Actually, I suspect I may need something a little more involved (a
>> gateway?) because my fixed IP address is part of my ISP's network and it
>> may cost me a lot more to get multiple IP addresses.
>
>Linux does this nicely. The standard distributions include ppp and will do
>routing (and even firewalling).
>
...
>You'll need your own network address - you need to get that from your ISP.
>They'll likely charge you more for routing a whole network vs a single
>station too...

Actually, Linux includes IP masquerading: a feature that allows a network
to "hide behind" a single IP address. By using this feature, your ISP
doesn't have to do anything at all, or even know about your arrangement.
Linux will use the dynamically-assigned IP address from the ISP. The only
downside is that you won't be able to run something that requires that
the outside world know about a fixed IP address (like a web server).
Almost everything else will work fine.

We used this arrangement for about six months before getting our
dedicated connection. It's even handy with a dedicated connection: the
Linux box acts as a firewall, making your internal network inaccessible
to an attacker. And most ISPs won't assign more than a few IP addresses,
so a masquerading arrangment can help you live within those addressing
restrictions.

-- Bruce


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