On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, Michael G. Schabert wrote:

> >On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, David Dierauer wrote:
> >
> >>  I am looking into getting a broadband connection for my home network,
> >>  and would like to set up a router using a *nix machine.  I've got two
> >>  68K machines just sitting around (a PowerBook 540 and an LCIII), and
> >>  it would be ideal if one of them could be set up for the task.
> >
> >Assuming your broadband connection comes in via ethernet, wouldn't you
> >need two ethernet interfaces to function as a router?  I don't think
> >either the powerbook 540 or the LCIII can support more than one ethernet.
> >
> >If you are going to route packets back out over the same interface they
> >come in on then maybe one is enough, but that doesn't sound like the best
> >idea to me.
> 
> It's generally doable...you can use a hub, connect the DSL/cable 
> modem via X-over cable to the hub. Your router computer will get the 
> DHCP lease, & use NAT to let the others onto the Internet. I'm 
> currently using an 840AV for that purpose, as my ISP requires PPPOE.

I set up a box to do this on a friend's network (but his NAT box runs
Linux). The other piece you need is some facility for an IP alias. The
IP obtained via DHCP will be unknown to the other machines on the network,
so they won't know who their gateway is. I suppose another method would
be to also set up the router box as a DHCP server as well. 

-- 
Michael Graffam (mgraffam@idsi.net)
The importance of a suburban struggle has usually been underestimated;
it is really very great. - Che Guevara (Guerilla Warfare, "Suburban Warfare")