[techtalk] Internet Connection Sharing

[James Sutherland]

On Thu, 17 May 2001, Julie wrote:

> From: coldfire <rolick571 at duq.edu>
> > well, i particularly enjoy networking stuff ... so if you need any help,
> > feel free to post and i'd love to help out as i'm sure others would too :)
> > quick question .. are you using ipfwadm, ipchains, or iptables?
>
> ... and speaking of internet stuff, I just signed up for Roadrunner
> and it will be a week or three before I have a Linux machine that
> I'm able to use as a firewall.
>
> Is there any hope for running a Windows 98 machine connected
> to the Internet with file sharing enabled and =not= get hacked in
> the first hour I'm connected?!?

If the Win machine has two network cards - one for the cable modem, one
for the LAN - you should be able to unbind file/print sharing from the
cable modem's NIC. That way, as far as the Net's concerned, you AREN'T
running file/print sharing: that's only visible to the LAN.

That should be reasonably secure; round here, there are plenty of Win9x
machines permanently connected to the Net without any firewalling (a
couple of port blocks - FTP, Netbios, finger and SMTP) and they seem to
survive, despite our network being port scanned several times a day by
external users...


James.
-- 
"Our attitude with TCP/IP is, `Hey, we'll do it, but don't make a big
system, because we can't fix it if it breaks -- nobody can.'"

"TCP/IP is OK if you've got a little informal club, and it doesn't make
any difference if it takes a while to fix it."
		-- Ken Olson, in Digital News, 1988