Good afternoon, all.
This week I finally joined the broadband world and have a MediaOne / RR
connection. I have it all set up w/ my M$ laptop right now but will be
switching over to a Linux centered system soon. In the mean time no machine
is connected to the modem except when specifically being used online (I
don't even leave the cat5 plugged in). Anyway, this is not only my first
journey into configuring my Linux boxes for internet use but also my first
experience w/ a personal LAN (lots of work based experience though). I am
not interested in hand-holding, and prefer to learn most of the details
myself. I do, however, think I need some help getting a quick start in the
right direction.
My primary personal machine is a dual boot Debian / Win98 machine (Windoze
is kept around mostly for gaming...). I also have a second computer
collecting dust and a Win-only laptop (work issued). I am very interested
in running a webserver and possibly play w/ a mail server eventually. My
idea at this time is to have the secondary computer fill the role of
firewall and (down the road) webserver, and remain always connected to the
cable modem. The other two computers (my primary box and laptop) will come
and go from the network...neither remains powered on unless being used. In
addition to the above, I have a Linksys EZXS55W Workgroup Switch (which I
have not put to use yet but will be trying out this weekend).
My first question is mostly hardware related...I would like to have only the
firewall box get an IP from M1, and any other machines that log into my
local network will be assigned local addresses by it. I do not yet have any
network cards in the firewall/server box, so I would welcome any information
as to what I would need. I am thinking the cable modem would have to plug
into the firewall/server box, then that would connect to the switch, and any
other machines would come and go from the switch. This leads me to believe
I would need two network cards in the firewall/server box (one for the modem
and one for the switch). I have not found examples of this type of setup
yet, so please slap me if I'm missing something and let me know if there's a
better / more efficient way of doing this (I do not want to buy a router
unless physically absolutely necessary since the firewall/server box should
be able to do the same thing).
My next question is to ask what services should I start studying up on to
run on the firewall box. My first goal would be to learn enough over the
next month or so to run a secure firewall box. After that's been around for
a while and I'm comfortable with it I would like to add an Apache webserver
to play with (I KNOW I shouldn't run anything other than the firewall for
true security, but unless I find room for a third computer this is how it
will probably be). I own (but have not needed to read yet) the O'Reilly
Cricket book (among many others), and will happily pick up other guides as
needed. I have most of the messages that have gone around this list
concerning good books on security and will get some of those as well to help
lock everything down. What I really need to know, however, is what would be
a minimal set of services to install on the firewall box that will also
handle any IP masq. and other services needed to put the network together
(remember, there's at least one Win box in this mess). If it matters for
the suggestions, I will be running Debian on the firewall box as well.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions, and if anyone sees me heading in the
direction of a serious mistake, please speak up. After I find answers to
the hardware questions, a simple list of services should be enough for me to
track down the HOWTOs, books, web sources, etc.
-Larry
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