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RE: [TCLUG:3635] Hub and IP question



	I've got a setup like this at home, so I can tell you what I've done...

> 1.  Does the proxy machine need two ethernet cards?  A Web site I found
> (http://www.jrd.com/masquerading.html) makes it sound like the
> system that
> handles the masquerading needs to have two cards, with the hub on
> one card
> and the outside network on the other.  Is this the case?

	Yes.  I saw Michael Hicks' note on setting up one card to have two IP's,
but I don't think that would work very well...  Ideally (in my opinion) you
want the IP Masquerading box to act as a firewall, keeping your internal and
external networks seperate, and controlling all traffic from one to the
other.  Using a one-card set-up might enable you to run the other PCs off of
one IP address, but IPX and other protocols might get confused, and you may
unintentionally give your neighbors access to your PCs.  If you can scavenge
an additional card, it will make things much easier and cleaner.

> 2.  Will the speed of the proxy machine have a major impact on
> the speed of
> the network?  Will it make a difference if I have a 486/33 vs. a
> 486/50 as
> the "gateway"?  Or should I really have it all run through the
> Pentium 166
> system?  My plan was to run one of the 486's only as the proxy, but how
> will that compare to the P166 (which would not be a dedicated system)?

	In my experience, a 386 DX makes an acceptable dedicated personal
router/firewall.  Either of your 486es should do OK, and leave you enough
CPU cycles left over to make a half-decent webserver.  Just don't plan to
run X or Quake II on it.