Subject: Re: SE/30 as a network router?
To: None <port-mac68k@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 02/05/2007 23:14:28
> I'd like to know if it is possible to make a SE/30 work as a internet
> router. I've read about NAT but it says that we need two NICs and SE/
> 30 only have one.

This is mostly true, I'm afraid.  (There are some exceptions - such as
the case where you have an 802.1q-capable switch and NIC, where you can
set it up as a trunk line and route between vlan interfaces - but if
you know enough to set that up and make it work right you wouldn't need
to ask this.)

It *is* possible to have a single-interface machine route between
different subnets running in the same broadcast domain ("on the same
cable", except that these days Ethernet isn't a bus technology any
longer, so the term is inaccurate).  This still inflicts most of the
problems of not routing, so it's of questionable value.  (It may be a
right answer for you, depending on why you want to route.)

> I have a cable connection and I have a switch/hub.  Currently I have
> a PM G4 (MacOSX) sharing my connection with only one NIC so I think
> it is possible to do it on a SE/30, I'm I right?

I'm not clear what you're trying to end up with - that is, what problem
you think turning your SE/30 into a router would solve.  Most of the
scenarios I can imagine end up with your box being not just a router
but also a NAT system (or an application-level proxy, in which case
it's not really a router in the usual sense of the term).

I can't see any reason, except possibly performance, why your SE/30
would be unable to handle what your G4 can...but that's speaking
conceptually; whether the software can do it out of the box is a
completely different question.

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