how do i configure red hat 9.0 to run as an internet gateway
 

hi there,

i have just recently formatted my old computer to red hat 9.0 so i can run it as an internet gate way for 2 windows xp machines.. but im a bit lost with red hat 9, im fairly new to using linux but trying to make the switch to something more secure then windows.. gettin sick of virus's and so on.. anyways anyone know how to configure red hat 9 so it will work as an internet gateway ?

If you have two nics on the linux box, you can configure iptables for ICS. You can get a lot of examples here
Another option which may be easier for now it to install a program called FireStarter. That program sets up internet connection sharing using a GUI tool which is easy to understand.

Unfortunately, this program works in the ganome environment but I use kde. I am using SuSE 9.1 and need to make my PC as an internet gateway. Can you give me a list of the steps I need to do?

Suse 9.1 has a tool called YaST which works quite nicely for this....

Open up the YaST tool / Network Devices / Network Card...
Configure the card which is connected to the Internet ( external ... usually gets the ip address from dhcp )
Configure the card which is connected to your local network ( internal ... something like 192.168.0.1 )
Save those settings and run the command /sbin/ifconfig to verify that your external card has picked up an address from the internet.
Ping something on the outside to make sure you can get out. For example...
ping -c 3 yahoo.com

Now open YaST tool / Security and Users / Firewall
Select .... Reconfigure Firewall Settings
Next

Select .... External Interface ( note: those funky numbers are the hardware address of the network cards in your machine. If you don't remember which is which, run the command: /sbin/ifconfig and write down which card has which hardware address. )
Select .... Internal Interface
Next

Select services allowed from the internet. You can leave all of that unchecked unless you have a good reason to do otherwise.
Next

[X] Forward Traffic and Do Masquerading
[ ] Protect from Internal Network
[X] Protect All Running Services
[ ]
[ ]

Next
Logging Options
Just leave it set the way it is by default.

Next
Save and Activate Firewall



That should do it for Suse.

thanks...
 

thanks homey,

ill let you know how it goes.. once i dl suse