My network has four to eight (it varies because of laptops) computers connected via a hub and a debian box acting as server. The debian computer is connected to the web via a cable modem.
I'm using ipchains to share the connection, the other computers have the debian box as default gateway and my IPs DNS as DNS.
The problem is that the computers connected to the server can't connect properly to all sites, they stall after loading 2-8kb. The page needs to be reloaded, sometimes five or six times, also some sites don't work at all.
If I browse from the server there are no problems.

What is a better way to share the connection that won't have these problems?
- cirofren

Would you happen to be using Mozilla on your laptops? Do you get the same browsing problem with any other browser (such as links/lynx?)

Also, try opening a separate terminal window on your laptop and run netstat while you are browsing -- this is useful for diagnostics

The problem is with ALL browsers, Mozilla, IE, Opera, Lynx, Galeon, Konqueror, all of them. Happens on all versions of Linux and Windows I've tried it on (Debian, Mandrake, WinXP, Win98). It's not my hardware, as when I was running the network windows only a few months ago using ICS it worked fine. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that using ipchains is a sloppy way to share the connection.
If anyone could tell me any 'clean' methods that'd be great. Preferably something where I can also monitor what computers are using what bandwidth and when. I don't care how hard it is to set up, as long as it works.
- cirofren.

I'm about to attempt the same setup, using my rh9 box as the primary connection to the internet for three other machines. I'll be watching and hoping for a few detailed replies to this one.
Good timing (for me anyway, : ) ).

try this script - I didn't test it but I will. I'm trying the same thing and my friend sent me this to try so you just need to reconfigure the script to your settings.

edit /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add those commands below, ppp0 is
my interface, reboot machine...



#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/sbin/modprobe ipt_MASQUERADE #
/sbin/iptables -F
/sbin/iptables -t nat -F
/sbin/iptables -t mangle -F
/sbin/iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ppp0 -j MASQUERADE
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -i ! ppp0 -j ACCEPT
/sbin/iptables -P INPUT DROP #only if the first two are succesful
/sbin/iptables -A FORWARD -i ppp0 -o ppp0 -j REJECT
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope that this might help you

Try upgrading to a newer kernel. This may fix it. Also, you'll be able to use iptables instead to ipchains. Although ipchains is not a messy way to do it. With an older kernel it's the ONLY way to do it.