Connecting 2 computers to the internet

[Scot L. Harris]

On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 14:54, Dotan Cohen wrote:

> 
> The last thing that I want to do is introduce a THRID computer to
> this. I'm not about to go out and invest in a router, so what would be
> the best way to go about doing this with the equiptment that I have?
> Can this be done with Samba? I'm about to go archive-diving now, but
> if anyone has any advise they'd be willing to share, I'm all ears. Er,
> well, eyes,....

In that case you need to read up on iptables and search out one of the
how to  documents on how to setup IP forwarding and NAT through your
linux system.  Samba won't get you there.  You can use samba to share
resources between the two systems but not for what you first asked
about.

Keep in mind that since you will be using your main linux system not
only as your firewall but as a workstation you will have to watch
carefully which services you have enabled and exposed to the Internet.  

Once you have your firewall in place you should periodically scan it
from the Internet to make sure your iptables rules are working as
expected and that you have not inadvertently opened up a hole that you
don't know about.  You can use scanners at sites like
http://www.grc.com, he has the shieldsup scanner that is pretty good.

Also you will have to have our linux box on line in order for your
windows system to get Internet access.

If you allow ssh from the Internet make sure you disable root from login
in via ssh and use strong passwords on all accounts on your system.

And keep and eye on your log files and read roots email every day.

-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

One of the chief duties of the mathematician in acting as an advisor...
is to discourage... from expecting too much from mathematics.
		-- N. Wiener