Re: DSL vs. cable and LAN options
I don't have any experience with DSL, but I can tell you about the AT&T @home
setup. Most of the networking stuff should apply to either, but you
should *insist* on an external adapter with a ethernet connector to your box.
I've been using a 5x86-133 machine for my linux masq gateway for about 4
years and it been connected to analog modem, ISDN, and cablemodem in its
day. It never has to work hard, even sustaining close to 1mbit throughput
on the cablemodem, so I would imagine a 486 is just fine. Of course, you
will probably want to do kernel compiles elsewhere and copy the image to the
486 box. ;-)
The masq box is setup with two ethernet cards. One is connected to your
DSL/cablemodem and the other to your hub/switch. Setup shouldn't be
difficult if you read the relevant masq documentation. You will probably
want to investigate running some services such as a caching DNS server and
web proxy. It's a nice learning experience and it can improve your network
throughput even more.
AT&T @home service uses DHCP but the DHCP server always allocates the same
IP to your box. This is done so that it's easier to rearrange IP addresses
(for them) should they ever need to. However, the technicians are told to
set the machine to the assigned static IP if anything goes wrong (and it's
not uncommon for @home DHCP to be down). I've been using my static IP since
I got the service because their DHCP (and DNS) was down the day it was
installed.
If you do get a broadband connection, be sure to setup a decent ipchains
firewall script and/or run some sort of intrusion detection system because
the broadband IP ranges are frequently scanned by hax0rs for vulnerable
systems. AT&T @home scans all of their clients for news servers (port 119)
routinely, so whatever you do, don't setup a news server -- even by mistake.
On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, D-Man wrote:
>
> I will be moving shortly and will no longer have my T1 connection :-(.
> I am considering getting DSL or a cable modem, but wanted to check
> with the Debian gurus first. Assuming both services are available,
> how well do they interroperate with Debian? What are people's
> opinions/experiences with them?
>
> Also, I want to set up IP masq'ing with an old i486 running Windows
> 95. What would be the suggested mechanism for connecting the two
> machines? Would ethernet be the easiest/cheapest way? PLIP probably
> isn't an option since it would interfere with printers on both sides
> and other devices on the 486 side. Is SLIP reasonably fast? If so,
> how do I configure the serial port properly? I tried setserial once
> but couldn't get the printer to work with it.
>
>
> Thanks for the suggestions and insight.
> -D
>
>
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