  Red Hat Linux 6.X as an Internet Gateway for a Home Network
  Paul Ramsey

  January 22, 2000

  A simple tutorial on configuring Red Hat 6 and related variants to
  operate as an internet gateway to a small home or office network. Top-
  ics covered include masquerading, DNS, DHCP, and basic security.

  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Introduction

     1.1 Versions
     1.2 Copyright

  2. Plugging Things In

     2.1 With a Hub
     2.2 Without a Hub
     2.3 With Only One Network Card

  3. Configuring Networking

     3.1 Configuring a Network Driver
        3.1.1 Two Identical Network Cards
     3.2 Configuring the Inside Network
        3.2.1 The Network Device
        3.2.2 The DHCP Server
        3.2.3 The Client Computers
        3.2.4 The DNS Server
        3.2.5 Testing the Inside Network
     3.3 Configuring the Outside Network
        3.3.1 With a Static IP
        3.3.2 With DHCP
        3.3.3 Quirks and Anomalies
           3.3.3.1 PPP Over Ethernet (PPPoE)
           3.3.3.2 Stupid DHCP Tricks
           3.3.3.3 Road Runner
        3.3.4 Looking at the Network Entries
     3.4 Security

  4. Configuring Masquerading

  5. Problems

     5.1 ICQ Does Not Work


  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Introduction

  This page contains a simple cookbook for setting up Red Hat 6.X as an
  internet gateway for a home network or small office network. The
  instructions are very simplified: no special cases will be discussed,
  and some assumptions will be made about which network addresses are to
  be used. The most important assumptions are:


  o  You have a fulltime Cable or ADSL connection to the Internet.


  o  You can successfully install Red Hat 6.X on at least one of your
     computers. Note that these directions are also valid for Red Hat
     derivatives, such as Mandrake 6.X which is distributed by MacMillan
     Publishing under a variety of labels.

  o  Your Linux computer has two network cards installed in it and both
     are compatible with Linux.

  o  You have an ethernet hub if you are networking more than one
     computer or a cross-over cable if you are only networking one
     computer.

  o  You know how to edit text files on your Linux machine.

  o  You can log into your machine as root. You know how to install RPM
     packages from your Linux CDROM.

  If you do not meet any of these assumptions, then this document
  probably isn't for you.

  There is nothing special that you have to do during the installation
  process.  Simply choose an installation which makes sense for you and
  go for it. This document gives directions on installing everything to
  do with networking from scratch, to avoid making any assumptions about
  what was installed or configured during installation. To ensure that
  things work and there is no confusion about what information goes
  where, all the configuration will be done by directly editing the
  system configuration files rather than using the GUI configuration
  tools provided with Red Hat. On the one hand, this might be a little
  harder than it has to be; on the other hand, your knowledge will be a
  good deal more transferable to different distributions and situations
  (like, what if X doesn't work, or you are setting up a headless
  server).

  1.1.  Versions

  The latest version of this document should always be available at
  http://www.coastnet.com/~pramsey/linux/homenet.html for the HTML
  version and http://www.coastnet.com/~pramsey/linux/homenet.sgml for
  the SGML version.


  o  December 21, 1999 : First version.

  o  January 2, 2000 : Incorporated suggestions from John Mellor on
     outside networking quirks.

  o  January 22, 2000 : Minor update about identical network cards and
     info on IP aliasing from Chris Lea.

  1.2.  Copyright

  Copyright  2000, Paul Ramsey.

  This manual may be reproduced in whole or in part, without fee,
  subject to the following restrictions:


  o  The copyright notice above and this permission notice must be
     preserved complete on all complete or partial copies.

  o  Any translation or derived work must be approved by the author in
     writing before distribution.

  o  If you distribute this work in part, instructions for obtaining the
     complete version of this manual must be included, and a means for
     obtaining a complete version provided.

  o  Small portions may be reproduced as illustrations for reviews or
     quotes in other works without this permission notice if proper
     citation is given.


  Exceptions to these rules may be granted for academic purposes: Write
  to the author and ask. These restrictions are here to protect us as
  authors, not to restrict you as learners and educators.

  2.  Plugging Things In

  Depending on whether you are using a hub or not, your network topolgy
  will differ slightly. I am only covering networking with RJ45 cabling
  (the stuff that looks like phone cables on steroids) and not covering
  thin coax. With thin coax you can network multiple machines without
  requiring a hub, but have to be more careful about terminating
  connections and so on. If you know networking already, these
  instructions will be largely redundant.

  2.1.  With a Hub

  If you have a hub, your network will look like this
  <http://www.coastnet.com/~pramsey/linux/w_hub.gif>.

  Connect the eth0 card on the Linux box to the cable modem or ADSL box
  using the cable supplied by the service provider during their install
  (or one you know works in that configuration. This is important
  because sometimes cable modems like to be connected with a crossover
  and sometimes they like a straight-through through cable: the one the
  company gives you is the one you want to use.

  Connect the eth1 card on the Linux box to the hub with a straight-
  through cable. Connect all your other computers to the hub with
  straight-through cables.

  2.2.  Without a Hub

  If you do not have a hub, you can still connect one computer to your
  Linux box, using a crossover cable. Your topology will look like this
  <http://www.coastnet.com/~pramsey/linux/wo_hub.gif>.

  Connect the eth0 card on the Linux box to the cable modem or ADSL box
  using the cable supplied by the service provider. Connect the eth1
  card on the Linux box to the other computer with a crossover cable.

  2.3.  With Only One Network Card

  This is not a recommended configuration (in this configuration your
  internal and external networks are on the same physical address, and
  are therefor theoretically more susceptible to cracking; in reality,
  the risk is probably very low), but it can be done. Your mileage may
  vary.

  The Linux kernel includes support for "IP aliasing", which allows an
  ethernet card to service two different IP addresses simultaneously.
  The stock kernels shipped with Red Hat and Mandrake do include support
  for IP aliasing by default.  To set up your gateway with only one
  ethernet card, in all the subsequent code examples, simply replace
  eth1 with eth0:0.

  In a single-card situation, running a DHCP server is not recommended.

  Plug all your machines and your cable model or ADSL box into the hub.
  Cross your fingers and continue.
  3.  Configuring Networking

  OK, by now you have installed Linux on your gateway computer. You may
  have even configured one of your networking cards, and set up
  connectivity to the Internet. However, we are going to start from
  scratch and pretend that nothing is configured at all.

  Log in as root. All the instructions given in this document assume you
  are logged in as root.

  The Linux kernel refers to your two ethernet cards as eth0 and eth1,
  so that is how I'll be referring to them from now on too. The trouble
  is, which one is which? Here's a "simple" way of figuring out,
  guaranteed to work at least 50% of the time: lay your computer on the
  desk with the motherboard horizontal and the back panel facing you (as
  you would if you were going to open it and do some work on it). The
  leftmost card is eth0 -- you might want to label it with some masking
  tape. Now, write down on a piece of paper the make and model of both
  eth0 and eth1.

  OK, let's see if eth0 and eth1 are recognized automatically by the
  kernel.  Type ifconfig eth0 and ifconfig eth1. In both cases, if the
  kernel is recognizing your card, you should see something like this
  (bearing in mind that the numbers and whatnot will be different):


  eth0   Link encap: Ethernet   HWaddr 00:60:67:4A:02:0A
         inet addr:0.0.0.0  Bcast:0.0.0.0  Mask:255.255.255.255
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:466 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:448 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:85 txqueuelen:100
         Interrupt:10 Base address:0xe400



  If the kernel is not recognizing your network card you will see
  something like this:


  eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found.



  3.1.  Configuring a Network Driver

  If both of your cards were found, skip to the next section. Otherwise,
  read this section.

  OK, so one or both of your cards are not recognized by the kernel.
  This is not a problem, really. What we're going to have to do is tell
  the kernel more explicitly how to find your cards. There are lots of
  twists and turns here, and I'm not going to cover all of them.
  Remember, when the going gets tough, the tough turn to the Ethernet
  HOWTO. Here's some summary advice:


  o  You have a PCI network card. You are probably sitting pretty,
     assuming it is not so new and cutting edge that no drivers exist.
     You can often find out a great deal about your network cards (and
     other things) by reading through /proc/pci and noting down makes
     and models.


  o  You have an ISA network card. It is possible you will have to know
     the IO base address and the IRQ the card is operating on. You have
     manuals, right?  Right? If not, this would be a good time to surf
     to the manufacturer's web site and see if they have any online
     references. Or if you have an old DOS configuration diskette, boot
     to DOS and see if there is a setup program which will read and set
     the address and IRQ.

  o  You have an ISA Plug'n'Play card. You'll have to learn how to
     configure it first -- read the Plug'n'Play HOWTO. Fortunately, once
     you've configured your card you will know exactly what the IO base
     and IRQ are.

  Now, since you know what the make and model of eth0 and eth1 are you
  can go to the compatibility page of the Ethernet HOWTO and look up
  your card. Take note of the recommended driver, and any information
  about special options your card may require. Write it down.

  It's time to edit a configuration file! The file we will be editing is
  /etc/conf.modules. Open this file up in the text editor of your
  choice. Because there are so many possibilities and combinations of
  things which can go in this file, I'm going to give my own gateway as
  an example. I have a PCI 10/100Mb card based on the VIA Rhine chip,
  and a plain-jane 10Mb NE2000 ISA clone. I use the 100Mb card for the
  internal network and the 10Mb card for the external connection. My
  /etc/conf.modules file looks like this:


  alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
  alias eth0 ne
  options ne io=0x300 irq=10
  alias eth1 via-rhine



  My conf.modules file is laid out as follows:


  o  The first line is there to configure my parallel port for printing.
     You probably have a similar line. Leave it alone.

  o  The second line (alias eth0 ne) tells the kernel to use the ne
     driver for the eth0 device.

  o  The third line (options ne io=0x300 irq=10) tells the ne driver at
     which io address and irq interrupt it will find the ISA card at. If
     you have ISA cards you will probably have to use this kind of
     directive, just replace the driver, io and irq directives with the
     correct information for your card.

  o  The fourth line (alias eth1 via-rhine) tells the kernel to use the
     via-rhine driver for eth1. Because my eth1 card is a PCI card, I do
     not need to provide io or irq information: the PCI subsystem
     configures the device automatically.

  You will want to ensure that you have alias entries in conf.modules
  for both your cards, and correct options lines for all your ISA cards.
  You may already have lines in conf.modules for any ethernet cards you
  configured during installation.

  When you have finished editing conf.modules, try ifconfig eth0 and
  ifconfig eth1 again. You may have to apply some trial and error if you
  are messing with IO addresses and IRQs without a manufacturers manual.


  3.1.1.  Two Identical Network Cards

  So, you were really really smart, bought two identical network cards
  for your Linux gateway, and now you cannot get them to work together?
  Do not worry, getting them to coexist is just a matter of using the
  correct syntax in /etc/conf.modules.  For this example, the addresses
  and IRQ numbers are made up, and I will assume that you have bought a
  matched pair of NE2000 clones (a common choice). Your
  /etc/conf.modules file should look like this:


  alias eth0 ne
  alias eth1 ne
  options ne io=0x330,0x360 irq=7,9



  The addressing options are all given on the same line, and the first
  number for each addressing type is for eth0, the second number for
  eth1.

  3.2.  Configuring the Inside Network

  The "inside network" is the network which all your home/office
  machines will talk on. The "outside network" is the big scary internet
  on the other side of the Linux box. By and large, the inside network
  will be completely insulated from the outside network by the Linux
  box, which will operate as a medium strength firewall.

  3.2.1.  The Network Device

  Now that your drivers are working and you can see both eth0 and eth1
  in ifconfig it is time to set up the internal home network. I am
  assuming that you are going to put your internal network on eth1 and
  your external device on eth0.

  Your internal network is going to be a private network and will
  therefor be on a special network reserved for internal networking:
  192.168.1.0. This is a "private Class C network", in case you want to
  impress your friends.

  First we need to make sure networking is turned on. Edit the file
  /etc/sysconfig/network and make sure the following lines exist:


  NETWORKING=yes
  FORWARD_IPV4=yes



  The first line tells Linux that we want the network devices brought up
  at boot time. The second line tells Linux to enable IP forwarding.
  This is required when we start configuring masquerading in Section 4.

  All the network interface settings for Red Hat and Red Hat derivatives
  are contained in files in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
  directory. Enter that directory, and create a new file ifcfg-eth1. Put
  the following into the ifcfg-eth1 file:



  DEVICE=eth1
  IPADDR=192.168.1.1
  ONBOOT=yes



  This code tells the networking scripts to configure eth1 at boot time
  and to give it a particular IP address. Activate your network with the
  new settings with the following command: /etc/rc.d/init.d/network
  restart

  3.2.2.  The DHCP Server

  A DHCP server will automatically configure devices on your internal
  home network with IP addresses. This is very useful for people with
  laptops: they can simply plug their machines in and be immediately
  properly configured. If you do not want a DHCP server on your internal
  network, just skip to the next section.

  First you need to be sure you have the DHCP server installed. Mount
  your Linux CD and install the dhcp RPM. Now edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf
  file and put the following (and only the following) in it:


  subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    range 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.60;
    default-lease-time 86400;
    max-lease-time 86400;
    option routers 192.168.1.1;
    option ip-forwarding off;
    option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
    option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  }



  If you are going to set up your Linux box as a caching domain name
  server, insert the following option:


  option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;



  If you know your outside DNS addresses and you are not going to use
  the Linux box for DNS, insert the following option, where x.x.x.x and
  y.y.y.y are IP numbers of the DNS servers:


  option domain-name-servers x.x.x.x, y.y.y.y;



  If you are going to run Samba file sharing on the Linux box for your
  Windows computers, add the following options to use the Linux box as
  the default WINS and browsing server:



  option netbios-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
  option netbios-dd-server 192.168.1.1;
  option netbios-node-type 8;
  option netbios-scope "";



  Configuring Samba and WINS is well beyond the scope of this document.
  If you need some pointers, start with the SMB HOWTO and go on from
  there.

  There are still a few more steps. Next, edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.local
  file and add the following lines at the end:


  # Set up the broadcast device to support DHCP
  /sbin/route add -host 255.255.255.255 dev eth1



  Windows DHCP clients require a particular broadcast address in DHCP
  responses, and this command forces the Linux TCP/IP stack to produce
  it.

  The next step is to alter the /etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd file to use eth1
  as the default device. Replace the line:


  daemon /usr/sbin/dhcpd



  With:


  daemon /usr/sbin/dhcpd eth1



  OK, now we are ready to start up DHCP. First start the DHCP server
  with the command: /etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd start. Now add the special
  broadcast address by invoking /sbin/route add -host 255.255.255.255
  dev eth1.

  Finally, we have to make sure that the DHCP server will start at re-
  boot time. Some RPM packages of the DHCP server do not include
  directives to ensure the server starts every time, so we'll make sure
  it gets started by invoking the command chkconfig dhcpd on.

  This command causes RedHat to add the dhcp startup script to the
  various runlevel directories under /etc/rc.d. In runlevels 3 and 5
  (multiuser console and multiuser X) the DHCP server is started. In
  runlevels 0, 1 and 6 (shutdown, single user and reboot) the DHCP
  server is stopped.

  3.2.3.  The Client Computers

  If you have set DHCP up, configuring your client computers is very
  easy: just enable DHCP configuration. For Windows computers, this
  involves opening the "Control Panel" and then the "Networking" option.
  Find the "TCP/IP" protocol and opt to "Configure" it. Check the box
  that says to "Configure TCP/IP address automatically", apply your
  changes, and reboot.

  Before you reboot, you might want to type the following command: tail
  -f /var/log/messages. This will watch the Linux system log
  continuously. If all goes well, when you reboot your Windows computer,
  you will see it request an IP address and see the DHCP server respond.
  Control-C exits the tail -f command.

  If you have not set up DHCP, configuration is still fairly easy.
  Again, open the "Networking" option from the "Control Panel", and
  choose to configure the TCP/IP protocol. You can assign your client
  computers any address in the 192.168.1.0 network except 192.168.1.0
  (the network address), 192.168.1.255 (the broadcast address) or
  192.168.1.1 (your Linux server). Never give two computers the same IP
  address. Set the "Gateway" address to 192.168.1.1, so that outgoing
  traffic is routed through your Linux gateway.

  The IP Masquerading HOWTO has very detailed information on client
  configuration in the Configuration Section.

  3.2.4.  The DNS Server

  Setting up your Linux box as a caching DNS server will (slightly)
  improve your netsurfing speed, because commonly used DNS addresses
  will get cached inside your network and not have to be retrieved from
  the outside.

  If you are interesting in doing full blown DNS, there is a great deal
  of complexity to be learned. There is a DNS HOWTO available, and the
  book DNS and BIND is a good (and very comprehensive) paper reference.

  In order for your client machines to take advantage of the caching
  server, they must be configured to use the Linux gateway as their
  primary DNS server.  The DHCP directives given in section 3.2.2 are
  one way to accomplish this.  If you are configuring your client
  computers by hand, you can change the DNS configurations in the same
  control tabs you used to set the IP address of the machine.

  To install the DNS server, first install the bind RPM, then install
  the caching-nameserver RPM. At this point, you are almost ready.

  As installed, the caching server will work fine, but if you know the
  IP addresses of the internet providers DNS servers you can improve
  performance slightly by editing the /etc/named.conf file and adding
  the following line after the directory line (where x.x.x.x and y.y.y.y
  are the primary and secondary DNS servers):


  forwarders { x.x.x.x; y.y.y.y; };



  This change makes your DNS server first query the ISPs DNS servers
  before traversing the internet in search of a given address. The ISPs
  servers often have a rich cache of DNS information and can provide a
  much faster answer than your server could.

  OK, now you can start your DNS server: /etc/rc.d/init.d/named start

  3.2.5.  Testing the Inside Network

  Until we configure the outside network, the DNS service will not work
  (since it has to communicate with other DNS servers on the internet),
  but we can test out the basic internal connectivity with the ping
  program.
  On one of your client computers, open up a terminal (MSDOS) window,
  and type ping 192.168.1.1. This will send out packets to your Linux
  computer at regular intervals, and your Linux computer will reflect
  the packets back. If things are working right, you should see a set of
  packet return times.

  3.3.  Configuring the Outside Network

  Now we're ready to configure the outside network. Sometimes this will
  be difficult, depending on how well your internet provider supports
  Linux. If you have difficulty, there is an ADSL mini-HOWTO which
  covers ADSL issues in some detail.  If I can find a Cable Modem HOWTO,
  I will link to it also.

  The main problem with most outside connections is getting an IP
  address.  Some internet providers hand out static IP addresses to
  cable or ADSL subscribers, and in that case configuration is easy.
  However, most providers have now moved to dynamic configuration via
  (you guessed it) DHCP. This means that your Linux computer will likely
  be a DHCP server on your eth1 interface, and a DHCP client on your
  eth0 interface.

  Additionally, many providers have taken to providing their services in
  specialized non-standard ways which assume their customers will be
  using Windows.  Some of those cases will be discussed at the end of
  section 3.3.2.

  3.3.1.  With a Static IP

  If your internet provider has assigned you a static IP address, you
  are sitting pretty. First, create a new interface configuration file,
  /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and put the following in it:


  DEVICE=eth0
  IPADDR=x.x.x.x
  NETMASK=y.y.y.y
  ONBOOT=yes



  Just fill in x.x.x.x and y.y.y.y with the values given by your
  internet provider. Now edit the /etc/resolv.conf file and enter the
  following information:


  search provider_domain_here
  nameserver n.n.n.n
  nameserver m.m.m.m



  The provider_domain should be supplied by your internet provider. Also
  enter the primary and secondary DNS servers in the n.n.n.n and m.m.m.m
  lines.  If you have set up the Linux box as a DNS server, you can add
  a line before the other nameserver entries: nameserver 127.0.0.1. This
  will make your Linux server use the caching server before asking the
  outside servers for DNS information.

  3.3.2.  With DHCP

  If your internet provider uses DHCP configuration, you need to create
  a new interface configuration file, /etc/sysconfig/network-
  scripts/ifcfg-eth0and put the following in it:
  DEVICE=eth0

  BOOTPROTO=dhcp

  ONBOOT=yes

  Now make sure that the dhcpcd client daemon is installed on your
  system.  Go to your Linux CD and install the dhcpcd RPM package.

  It's time to test your new network configuration. Just use the command
  /etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart. Now test your outside connection
  with ping.  Ping a computer on the internet, like www.yahoo.com and
  see if anything comes back.

  3.3.3.  Quirks and Anomalies

  Your situation may differ from the very simple situations described
  above.  Here are some short remarks on the various difficulties and
  links to more authoritative resources and addressing them. Thanks to
  John Mellor for supplying the links and impetus for adding this
  section.

  3.3.3.1.  PPP Over Ethernet (PPPoE)

  Several ADSL providers (Bell Atlantic, for example) are now insisting
  that their new customers connect to the service using the "PPP over
  Ethernet" protocol (PPPoE). To this end, they provide a Windows client
  program: not very useful for Linux users. Fortunately, PPPoE is a
  simple protocol and several efforts are underway to support it under
  Linux, although all are in the early stages.


  o  PPPoE on Linux for Bell Sympatico

  o  PPPoE on Linux for Sympatico (General Info) (Linux Info)

  3.3.3.2.  Stupid DHCP Tricks

  One of the favorite tricks network providers play is to tie your
  service to a unique hostname, or even a unique network interface card.
  This is presumably to keep you from plugging multiple computers into
  your ethernet port using a hub (of course, by using Linux and
  Masquerading you're getting the same effect with better security and
  the cable company has no way of knowing!).

  If the provider has given you a hostname and insisted that you set
  your Windows box with that name in order you use their service, then
  you'll have to make sure that your Linux box sends in that hostname
  when requesting an address from the DHCP server.

  The Red Hat DHCP client is called when you set the BOOTPROTO to dhcp
  in the interface configuration file, but it is called without
  reference to a hostname.  To call the program with a hostname, in Red
  Hat 6.1, edit the /etc/sysconfig/network file, and change the line:

  HOSTNAME=

  To read this:

  HOSTNAME=your_isp_assigned_name

  This may not work in some of the Red Hat variants. If it does not
  work, check the /sbin/ifup script and see if the call to dhcpcd and
  pump include a -h $HOSTNAME switch. If they do not, add them, so the
  calls look like /sbin/dhcpcd -i $DEVICE -h $HOSTNAME and /sbin/pump -i
  $DEVICE -h $HOSTNAME.
  3.3.3.3.  Road Runner

  The Road Runner cable service has a special login process which much
  be run before the server can be used. Fortunately, a detailed Linux
  Road Runner HOWTO is available.

  3.3.4.  Looking at the Network Entries

  Now you can admire your work. Type ifconfig to see all your configured
  devices. On my gateway computer, it looks like this:


  eth0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:60:67:4A:02:0A
        inet addr:24.65.182.43  Bcast:24.65.182.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
        UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500 Metric:1
        RX packets:487167 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:467064 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:89 txqueuelen:100
        Interrupt:10 Base address:0xe400
  eth1  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:80:C8:D3:30:2C
        inet addr:192.168.1.1  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
        UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500 Metric:1
        RX packets:284112 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1
        TX packets:311533 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:37938 txqueuelen:100
        Interrupt:5 Base address:0xe800
  lo    Link encap:Local Loopback
        inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
        UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:3924  Metric:1
        RX packets:12598 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:12598 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:0



  Note that the eth0 interface has a fancy outside IP address, and the
  eth1 address has a private internal address.

  You can look at the network routes by typing the route command. On my
  gateway computer it looks like this:


    Kernel IP routing table
    Destination     Gateway      Genmask         Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
    255.255.255.255 *            255.255.255.255 UH    0      0     0 eth1
    192.168.1.0     *            255.255.255.0   U     0      0     0 eth1
    24.65.182.0     *            255.255.255.0   U     0      0     0 eth0
    127.0.0.0       *            255.0.0.0       U     0      0     0 lo
    default         24.65.182.1  0.0.0.0         UG    0      0     0 eth0



  Here we can see the outside network is set up, the inside network is
  set up, the local device is set up, the special 255.255.255.255
  broadcast address is set up, and the default route is set up to point
  to the internet providers gateway. Perfect!

  Now you have the outside, and the inside. All the remains is to open
  the door between the two. First though, we have to make sure no
  monsters can get in from the outside.



  3.4.  Security

  One of the drawbacks of being permanently connected to the internet
  via ADSL or cable is that your computer is exposed to potential
  security threats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Using Linux as a
  gateway reduces the risks, because it hides all your other computers:
  as far as the rest of the internet is concerned, only your Linux box
  is available for connections. This means that your network is only as
  secure as your Linux box, so at this point I'll give a few basic tips
  to make your box more secure.

  First, you need to shut out all the bad guys. To do this, edit the
  file /etc/hosts.deny and make sure it looks just like this:


  #
  # hosts.deny  This file describes the names of the hosts which are
  #             *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
  #             by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
  #
  #             The portmap line is redundant, but it is left to remind you that
  #             the new secure portmap uses hosts.deny and hosts.allow. In particular
  #             you should know that NFS uses portmap!
  ALL: ALL



  This tells the "TCP wrappers" -- which control 95% of incoming
  connections -- to deny all connections from all hosts. That's a pretty
  good rule! But, it will also keep you from connecting to your Linux
  box from inside your home network, which is annoying, so we will make
  one exception.  Edit the file /etc/hosts.allow and make sure it looks
  just like this:


  #
  # hosts.allow  This file describes the names of the hosts which are
  #              allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
  #              by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
  #
  ALL: 127.0.0.1
  ALL: 192.168.1.



  This tells the "TCP wrappers" that they can allow connections to all
  services from the local device (127.0.0.1) and from your home network
  (192.168.1.).

  You have now locked the monsters outside, with a strong padlock. If
  you want to put up bars and alarm systems, you will have to be alot
  more sophisticated.  The Security HOWTO is a good place to start if
  you want to learn more about securing your Linux box.

  4.  Configuring Masquerading

  All right! The preliminaries are over, this is where the magic begins.
  IP masquerading is one of the truly magical services Linux provides.
  There are commercial products for Windows which do the same thing, but
  not nearly as efficiently: an ancient 386 can merrily provide IP
  masquerading services to a whole medium sized office, but cannot even
  run Windows 95, let alone the add on masquerading package.


  Linux has an extremely versatile firewalling capability, and we are
  going to be using it in the simplest and crudest possible manner. If
  you want to learn how to do firewalling like an expert, you should
  read both the Firewalling HOWTO for an understanding of the theory and
  the IPChains HOWTO for instructions on the new ipchains firewalling
  tool which ships with the Linux 2.2.X kernel (and by extension Red Hat
  6.X).  There is also now a very good IP Masquerading HOWTO available
  which has more details on masquerading tweaks.

  Configuring simple masquerading is very very easy once your internal
  and external networking is operational. Edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.local
  file and add the following lines to the bottom:


  # 1) Flush the rule tables.
  /sbin/ipchains -F input
  /sbin/ipchains -F forward
  /sbin/ipchains -F output
  # 2) Set the MASQ timings and allow packets in for DHCP configuration.
  /sbin/ipchains -M -S 7200 10 60
  /sbin/ipchains -A input -j ACCEPT -i eth0 -s 0/0 68 -d 0/0 67 -p udp
  # 3) Deny all forwarding packets except those from local network.
  #    Masquerage those.
  /sbin/ipchains -P forward DENY
  /sbin/ipchains -A forward -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j MASQ
  # 4) Load forwarding modules for special services.
  /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_ftp
  /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_raudio



  The last two lines insert kernel modules which allow FTP and RealAudio
  to work for computers on the inside network. There are other modules
  for special services which you can tack on if you need them:


  o  CUSeeMe (/sbin/modprobe ip_masq_cuseeme)

  o  Internet Relay Chat (/sbin/modprobe ip_masq_irc)

  o  Quake (/sbin/modprobe ip_masq_quake)

  o  VDOLive (/sbin/modprobe ip_masq_vdolive)

  Now you're ready to try masquerading! Run the rc.local script with the
  command /etc/rc.d/rc.local and you are ready to go! Sit down at one of
  your other computers and try some web surfing. With any luck,
  everything is now hunky dory.

  5.  Problems

  There are lots and lots of things which can go wrong using a simple
  document like this, because there are plenty of special cases. The
  majority of possible problems adhere to the configuration of the
  internal and external network devices.  I will try and respond to
  people with problems, figure out what went wrong and add links down
  here so that people with special case problems can track down help.
  Feel free to contact me at pramsey@refractions.net.

  5.1.  ICQ Does Not Work

  Some portions of ICQ work fine over masquerading. Other portions do
  not work well at all. There is a beta quality ICQ module under
  development, however, which addresses some (but not all) of the
  deficiencies of running ICQ over masquerading. The README file in the
  source code distribution describes how to compile the module. Once you
  have it compiled and installed, invoke /sbin/modprobe ip_masq_icq.



