[mdlug] Setting up a home network

[Michael S. Mikowski]

Hi Mike:

If you have more money than time, plopping down $99 for one of these would 
almost certainly be the fastest way to meet your needs:

<http://www.belkin.com/support/article/?lid=en&pid=f5d8235-4&aid=14407&scid=0&fid=4463&fn=man_f5d8235-4_pm00736_0708.pdf>

Highlights:

Page 37: reserving IPs per MAC address with DHCP (key feature!)

Page 45: guest users (kept off your network; handy!)

Page 47: firewall features

Page 48: forwarding of ports to specific servers (e.g. port 22 to your desktop 
so you can SSH to it)

Page 51: DMZ (if you dare!)

Page 52: Dynamic DNS to set up the system so that you can remotely access your 
box by hostname even if your ISP changes your WAN IP address.

My guess is the router almost certainly does DNS forwarding (e.g. one can 
point to it as the DNS server).  If one is lucky, it will resolve the client 
host names it finds, per p37 too (WRT54Gv2 does forwarding, but does *not* 
resolve local client names).  If this router also does not, the ability to 
reserve IPs means one can set up his own host names in /etc/hosts for the 
devices on the network.  The key benefit to either approach is there would be 
no need to ensure a server is always on to handle DNS.

Most of this stuff is supported by my WRT54Gv2 with the latest firmware 
(4.21.1).  This may not be the case for WRT54Gv5, which has half the memory 
and different firmware. In any case, the key missing feature is ability to 
assign IP addresses based upon MAC address.

If I have trouble after flashing my WRT54Gv2 router, I will buy one of these.

Sincerely,

Mike

p.s. If you want to share files over the network, you might consider NFS. If 
you do so, you will need to match (or map) user  ids /etc/passwd on different 
boxes.  This can be done a number of different ways.  One is to use NIS.

On Sunday 25 January 2009 20:50:12 Michael S. Mikowski wrote:
> Hi Michael:
>
> The best solution, IMO, is as follows:
>
> Modem -> Wireless Router -> mnewman-desktop + Rest of network
>
> That way, you let the router act as your firewall, name server (DNS), DHCP
> server, etc, and not have to worry about anything else -- it will just
> work. And you won't need to keep a machine on all the time, just the
> router.
>
>
> On Saturday 24 January 2009 09:27:10 Michael wrote:
> > This should be something really simple and I can't even figure out where
> > to start. I am hoping someone might point me in the right direction. The
> > core hardware:
> > 1) Motorola surfboard cable modem connected to Comcast internet
> > 2) Linksys wrt54g v5 wireless router
> > 3) Ubuntu Desktop machine with multiple Ethernet connections
> > (mnewman-desktop)
> > 4) Various laptops, iphones and peripherals that go from the home network
> > to work to coffee shops, etc.
> >
> > What I want:
> >
> > A.) A simple home network where each computer has its own name and can be
> > accessed via that name. I can bring my Apple Laptop home from work and
> > ssh into mnewman-desktop/access media files on it
> > B.) Access to my home network (specifically mnewman-desktop) via port 22
> > and 80 from outside the network
> >
> > Originally I thought I would set up something like
> >
> > Modem --> mnewman-desktop --> wireless router
> >
> > And I had shorewall working, and then I realized I mess around on
> > mnewman-desktop too much and taking down the entire network because I
> > installed a bad piece of software. So ideally the set up would be Modem
> > --> wireless router --> network (including mnewman-desktop)
> >
> > I don't think this set up should be that difficult, but I can't figure
> > out even where to start.
> >
> > Anybody have any experience/care to help?
> >
> > Thanks, Michael