Re: A debian network
Will Lowe <lowe@mail.eecis.udel.edu> writes:
> machine (Pent 166) through it to the net ... can I do this without a
> dedicated router, maybe using the 486 as a router and putting the Pent on
> a new, local network? Will a 486 be up to the task of being a router,
> web server, mail server, etc. all at once if I don't use if for any
> computes?
The "router" function is actually in the IP protocol software within the OS.
A router (from an IP view) is a network entity with more than one network
interface with IP forwarding enabled. There are a lot of other considerations
like proper assignment of IP addresses to the network interfaces and populating
the routing table in the router with routes that make sense, that are required
also, but for simple networks these can be pretty simple.
There is really nothing special about routers that one buys from cisco, et. al.
except that they are optimized for this type of application, have software
for a number of different network interface types, have software for a number
of different routing protocols, etc. In fact, when the first purpose built
routers were being built, Sun workstations were actually higher performance
routers.
So to make a router, you must have something with more than 1 network interface,
and IP protocol software with IP forwarding enabled. I have no experience with
486 class CPUs, but have a lot of experience w/ 68020, 030, 040 class CPUs and
I should think adequate performance would result [depending upon the popularity
of your web site :)].
> Secondly, I don't have a CD drive for the 486. Is it possible
> that I could get enough of base and nfs installed via floppy to do an nfs
> install from the pentium? Or is it hopeless, and should I just move my
> CD drive to the 486 long enough to do the install?
>
Use the ftp method in dselect. I've never purchased a Linux CD and have
installed/upgraded Debian several times over a 28 kb/s modem connection.
Works great!
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