ubuntu box as router
 

Hi. i'm trying to set up an old gatway laptop from college as the router for my household since the box i'm using now (an old dell winXP box with a noisy/dying hd) is on it's last legs.

so, i did a little research and decided that i wanted to try ubuntu. (distrowatch dot com) well, it's great. i downloaded the iso, burned a disk, ran the installer no prob, let it simmer through the auto updater, and logged in to good resoluction, sound, trackpad support, internet (good old firefox!) and generally anything that you might want to start the day off with in a computer.

now i've done a half dozen searches on how to set up a ubunto box as a router/bridge/firewall and the most helpful one i've seen basically pointed out how cheap it would be to buy a little dedicated router unit from newegg.

can anyone give me any pointers? are instructions i find for debian going to work just as well for me? i want to learn more about the process than just paste in a couple (dozen?) commands, but i'm not sure where to begin...

thanks.

There are a number of options with this kind of deployment. My first comment is that you don't need a full Ubuntu install as it is a waste and an X environment is not good in a secure environment. You just need a basic linux install with a firewall and internet sharing. A really good package is IPCop. If you have an ailing hard drive an excellent setup that runs off a floppy is Coyote (http://www.coyotelinux.com/). You ideally need to just install a base system and admin it via an ftp connection through either linux or M$.

You may also want to have a look at the IP-Masquerade-HOWTO. It's what I used to get my router/firewall running.

I do, however, agree with TigerOC's remark about X. You don't need it. I actually have it installed on my server but it's not running. It only gets activated when I want to mess around with the server locally - as opposed to through ssh which is what I usually do.

firestarter on ubuntu as router
 

first off, thanks for the advice. i haven't had much time this week to work on this, but your comments have given me a couple more directions to google during spare moments at work.

so what's the concensus on firestarter as an option?

i'm definitely going to look at the ip masquerade page, but i'm still (two weeks into my linux experience) more comfortable with the gui, hold-your-hand, approach that i'm seeing in the firestarter installer.

i'm currently shying away from the much easier coyote approach primarily because a buddy with an extra hard drive wants the dell and i want to be able to mess around with linux on the laptop - if i can get everything i need on a day to day basis to work on it, ultimately i'd like to get to a 90/10 linux/windows situation.

if i can get it up and working as the router, would simply logging out of x help the secureness concerns?

You can still work in gui environment but on another box. This is how i manage my server. I use kde and have KBear installed which is a sftp/ftp client. I connect to the server via ssh (sftp) and am then in a gui environment and can edit files, browse directories, etc from my main system. It is all seamless and feels like your own system in most respects.

firestarter - eth0 is not ready
 

i am also trying to use my ubuntu box as a firewall/router.
my roommate just got a new ibook and we'd both like to be able to use the net at the same time. i happened to have a spare network card and ethernet cable so i figured i'd try to get this running without paying for a new router.

I'm having a few problems with Firestarter:

1. i am not able to "Enable DHCP for Local Network" via the setup wizard
2. after saving the options Firestarter tells me
"Failed to start the firewall
The device eth0 is not ready.
Please check your network device settings and make sure your connection is active."

eth0 is ready and active... i'm using it right now..
any help with this problem would be great. (please don't tell me to buy a router)
thanks
Josh

f*** firestarter
 

http://www.cs.camosun.bc.ca/tb186/hp...g/272lab6.html

follow the instructions on that page.. you may have to change a few small things according to your system (like which eth forwards to the other)
and of course it's mandrake... so don't bother looking for /etc/rc.d/init.d because it doesn't
exist in ubuntu... you'll want /etc/init.d

make sure you read the IP Masquerading HOWTO

in /etc/network/options change ip-forward to "yes"

also follow the instructions on this page:
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/UbuntuBootupHowto

sorry if this info is fragmented... i've collected the info from my madly drawn notes and it's quite late.

hope this helps

Josh