Sharing your highspeed connection painlessly

[Statica]

Check it out folks: www.startuplinux.com for Slacknet Linux, I just reviewed it out, its for easy sharing of your high speed connection over your SOHO... as painlessly as you can imagine.

NB: some of the security features leave a lot to be desired, so be aware of the fallacies.

Cheers

[mairving]

Static,
I thought that IP Masquerade was fairly simple to set up. It was easy getting my cable connection configured. I had some problems with my NIC. Mandrake detected it but did not load the module. The only other problem was figuring out that the DHCP client was not installed. Once I installed that, it worked great. Here is a good link for High Speed connections via Linux: http://www.cablemodeminfo.com/linbasics.x.html-ssi .

Once all that was set-up I had to alter my IP Chains to allow the other machines I had to connect.

[Statica]

Mairving:
Ur missing the point of slacknet linux, you mention IP Masq being easy, what I posted was NOT a link to getting IP_Masq working easily. When you set up IP_masq, first you gotta learn how to install Linux, then you gotta install linux, then you gotta configure networking, then you gotta share your networking, then you gotta verify services and configure and load IP_masq modules.
Now try slacknet, or read the FAQ. this is a specialized distrib. that from start to go does ONLY high speed sharing, it does NOTHING else of value. That is the essence of this distribution/mini distribution .. it simply splits your connection!

Besides are u using tunneling? I know masq is easy .. but also depends on what modules you need.

[This message has been edited by Ex-Static-Cling (edited 07-25-2000).]

[Statica]

If you really want to see how specialized distributions can get check out www.e-smith.org

That is the essence of Linux, you can scale it down to make it as simple as you want for your target, everyone knows that a simple distrib of Linux can do EVERYTHING you want. but the beauty is to be able to do EXACTLY what you want!

[vitalstatistix]

my two cents.. continuing from where Es-Static left!
a) www.e-smith.org is the perfect solution as a workgroup server with literally ZERO TCO.
b) www.e-smith.org is also a gr8 solution for very high speed (Eth) Internet connection.
c) Slacknet Linux is build for cable/xDSL range
and this list is unending (ref: Freshmeat)

yes you can achieve all of parafernelia of Ip-Masq . blah blah . with RedHat basic distro too, but . look at it from a new user' perpective. these speecial purpose disctribution are to lower the entry-level barier that Linux currently finds.

People want a windows like do it all box (though which it never does) however these distro cater to that fast growing segment. Even though these distro are very good in efficiencey, but prime objective is ease of use and lower TCO.

cheers


gtfx

PS: Mairving, no offence meant, how long will u take to setup a virgin box to use a cable connection, and try it with 'DIY' slacknet-linux. i rest me case. btw, E-smith is typically up and running in less then 20 minutes including installation and everything else!

[This message has been edited by vitalstatistix (edited 07-25-2000).]

[mairving]

No offense taken and being able to set up a computer in a short amount of time is great. I guess that I have never been one to take the easy way. Those couple of hundred hours I spent setting up my box were well spent. I could do it now in probably an hour or two but I am so much a better man now that I have been hardened by Linux.

I guess that it is two different things that we are talking about. One for the masses and the other for us nerds.

[Xayd]

That's the beauty of these specialty distributions to me Mairving.

People in small to mid sized companies use buggy as hell Windows networks to run their company business on. Why? Because NT is well known and paper MCSE's are a dime a dozen. Linux has for too long been a "specialty" OS for us tinkerers, but with these stripped down and specialized distributions, the average user who doesn't care to know how his machine works can utilize the reliability of a REAL os as well. I think they're great ideas.

Besides, the stereotypical small company owner we're talking about doesn't know how his Windows box works, so not knowing how the Linux box works either is hardly hindering him. Might as well go with the more stable of the two OS choices. A few seem to be catching onto this idea here of late.

Of course they could all solve their stability issues and keep a great graphical OS by going with MAC machines for these small networks, but that's pricey and another topic for another forum . People will always fear and hate what they don't understand...

Xayd