My desktop and laptop are connected to the internet through a router (network: 192.168.1.0). On the desktop (Centos 5.2) I've got a virtual machine with a basic web server (VMware 2 - bridged networking with a separate IP from the host).
Now I'm thinking of setting up a proxy server for the web server to control the access to it. As far as I know, in this situation the proxy needs to be set up on a gateway computer which normally would require 2 NICs. Can my desktop computer (host) be the gateway computer for the virtual clients it has? If so, I assume there wouldn't be any need for 2 NICs) I'd create a separate network (eg.192.168.2.0) so the virtual machine wouldn't access the network directly through the router but through the gateway host computer (which would then access the internet through the router).

Does it make any sense? I mean I know it's probably not very practical, but it's just for the sake of learning. I don't want to take the router out of the equation as it would make my laptop's access to the internet dependent on the desktop computer. Hence, the idea of 2 separate networks.
I don't have much experience in complex networking (anything that goes beyond 2 boxes and a router is complex to me, LOL) so I'd be glad if you could clarify any misconceptions that my plan holds.

thanks

Wow, that sounds like an ideal situation, but would it work? I'd be interested to know, as I'm trying to use a 2-NIC machine to connect to AT&T broadband and a local Lan at the same time. So far, all I've been able to do is get on the DSL one time, now it won't do anything with that connection. I hesitate to try and hook up the LAN part until I'm SURE that DSL will come back everytime. I'll watch this thread to see what happens.