Tim McNamara wrote:

>Thanks for the help, everyone.  I need to do some trouble shooting 
>and have some more low-end-of-the-learning-curve questions.
>
>I can't ping the NetBSD box from within the LAN, which tells me I've 
>munged up the configuration somehow.  My guess is that I've failed to 
>configure the LAN side of the interface with the "inside" IP address 
>so that the other computers can find it.  I have configured the other 
>computers manually to use the NetBSD box as the gateway in OT .
>
>Erik's note indicated:
>
>>Unless you have the dhcp client enabled in rc.conf, your IP address
>>under NetBSD is assigned via /etc/ifconfig.sn0 or /etc/ifconfig.ae0
>
>What's the proper syntax for this?  My ifconfig.sn0 currently reads:
>
>           inet sugaree netmask 255.255.255.0
>
>I didn't see this directly addressed on Bob's site.
>

192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0

>Should I create an /etc/sysctl.conf file (this was mentioned on 
>OpenBSD's site about setting up rdr, but sysctl is in /usr/sbin on 
>NetBSD; if I need a *.conf file would it go in /usr/sbin)?  Do I need 
>to enable forwarding with "net.inet.ip.forwarding=1" in sysctl.conf 
>(as per the OpenBSD site)?  Bob N's setup Web page mentions  doing a 
>"/usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0" - is that necessary?
>

Not necessary to get the system up and running but you may want to play 
with it afterr that to optimize performance if you're on a cable or xDSL 
line.  Usually the *.conf files go into the /etc directory unless they 
are related to a package not part of the original distribution.

>Thanks so very much for all the help.  It's truly amazing what NetBSD 
>can do (in the nads of someone who has a clue about what they're 
>doing, anyway).
>
>Obviously I need some reference materials about system 
>administration.  There's a logic to this system that sort of escapes 
>me, since I'm used to a decade and a half of Macs which offer minimal 
>configuration options.  What would you recommend as being the closest 
>to NetBSD (since there aren't any books specifically on that, yet).

Any of the O'Rielly books on BSD.  Books on Solaris and even Linux can be 
helpful too.

-bob