I have my Win2k (or NT) box serving my mandrake box with the internet, and it works great.

however, i chose it this way around because my BT voyager ADSL modem is not supported by linux and i have tried flashtux.org link everyone is throwing around on this issue, i have tried for 2 fulldays and there is no way that works.

ANYWAY! i would like to run my linux box as a web server, and Half Life sever for a few friends.... can i do this if its only connection to the net is through Internet Connection Sharing?

any help with this would be appreciated and it would put my faith back in linux, the modem issue has oushed me to the edge.... if you have any help with that, that would also be ace!

< how kewl is this guy?

Sounds like you need to setup some type of port forwarding by the windows box. I have no idea how to actually do that in windows, but you can try a windows forum and ask about how to forward port 80 and whatever port half-life runs on from the windows box to your server.

Before you descend into windows hell though, you might want to try buying a multiport router like a linksys or something similar. It should be compatible with your modem (check first though) and will handle all the routing and port forwarding with ease and you can avoid having windows do the routing (cringe).

yeah im looking into buying a router modem built in thing... and my box's NIC's would connect to the router and the router to the net? still alowing them to talk to each other over the router? and wtf is a "bridge"?

id rather do that than work out how to port forward, i hate win2k and up networking as it is, they shouldve stuck to 98's approach.

anyway, yeah, any advice on a router with built in modem anyone?

The way I have my home network setup is something like this:


Internet
|
|
----------------
|DSL Modem|
----------------
|
|
------------------
|4-port Router|------Win2k
------------------
|
|
Linux box

The Linux box and Win2k are both masqueraded by the router (a Linksys BEFSR41). They both can communicate to each other on the LAN interfaces of the router, however the router keeps unwanted traffic out by filtering traffic coming from the net. The nice part is that you can program the router to send all the packets with a certain port number to a specific computer (ie you can forward all the half-life traffic to your linux box or wherever).

Before you buy anything make sure all the hardware is compatible (esp router and modem). Luckily my router plays nice with the DSL modem. All you have to do is enter your username and password and it grabs the IP address and DNS stuff from the modem. Then you just tell the Linux box and win2k to get internal IP addresses from the router. You might not be able to get a router that works with you're modem, but at least do some research first before you go buy a modem/router combo for $$$.

As far as bridging vs routing, they're very simililar but to my knowledge routing works with IP addresses while bridging uses hardware (MAC or ethernet) addresses. Usually you'll hear the term bridging when your connecting two local networks together, so I don't believe you can use a bridge to connect to the internet.