Simple Linux Caching Proxy for Use with Linspire 5
 

At home I have a cross platform system comprising of a Mac, a Debian Box, an XP Laptop, and my parent's Linspire 5/Solaris Dual Boot system. What I really want to do is share the internet connection using the Linspire 5 box without a router. While quite knowledgeable on computer systems in general, I am new to linux on a technical level, and need a solution that is going to be as simple as possible.

I tried a tutorial on bridging iptables between ethernet adapters on different networks (we have a cable connection with a dynamic ip) in which the author of the tutorial provided a simple shell script into which the user could put variables for customising the script. It failed unsymptomatically - absolutely nothing changed in terms of the observable network behaviour. None of the computers were able to ping the outer interface (eth2) of the Linspire 5 system.

I also tried editing the Apache Configuration to work as a proxy server, though I gave up on that when I broke the capacity of the server to actually host web pages.

I installed the latest stable release of squid - though when it came to editing the seemingly endless config file, filled with apparrently irrelevent settings with default values missing - I gave up on that exploit too.

It wasn't that I coudn't understand all of these methods with time - but that I don't have the time required to understand them!

While ideally I would like to do away with windows forever, and I am unsure of how efficient a mac would be at routing between two networks, (given my mac only has one ethernet adapter) I can get free proxy software installed and working on them in less then five minutes. I haven't been able to find the same kinds of software for linux. Where do I go next?

Thanks in advance!

I noticed that JAP has the capacity to foward http requests on port 4001 between computers, even when anonymity isn't turned on - if the setting to disable connections from computers other then localhost is off.

In fact - its a pretty effective virtual NAT HTTP router. If I can't find anything better, i'll use it.

I know how to set it to autostart with KDE - i did a quick google and know to put it (or a shortcut) in /.kde/Autostart.

The thing is - I want to have it invisible - not bother me every time I turn on the computer - is there a way to hide it from kicker and the UI in general? (I'm not looking to hide it from system guard)

Sorry - could someone possibly move this to the networking forum? I envisage it will do better there.

Thanks Again!