Route Int/Local For a Household

Hi There

What i plan to do is set up a dedicated box running Windows XP Pro with Route Sentry running on it.

I just need to know how to set it up as a gateway.

I have considered running IPCop or RouterOS, but i have alot more experience with RouteSentry and very little experience with the linux Router options.

Would my idea be possible, and if so, how do i go about setting it up?

Help will be much appreciated

Hey CyBeRmAn. Your idea is not only possible; it's quite easy to do. Enable Internet Connection Sharing on the XP Pro box acting as router and enable DHCP on the client computers on the network. Just keep in mind that this will change the IP range assigned to your network to 192.168.0.x

Also remember to disable the modem's DHCP server before activating ICS.

I don't think that ICS would work for that, as far as i know it can only share one internet connection

A router based solution will work much better, check out the following thread, its quite easy to setup.

Splitting international and local traffic on a Linksys WRT54G

CyBeRmAn said:

Hi There

What i plan to do is set up a dedicated box running Windows XP Pro with Route Sentry running on it.

I just need to know how to set it up as a gateway.

I have considered running IPCop or RouterOS, but i have alot more experience with RouteSentry and very little experience with the linux Router options.

Would my idea be possible, and if so, how do i go about setting it up?

Help will be much appreciated

Click to expand...

Well I haven't tried to set up a Windows PC up as a Gateway - you would need to use both an ADSL modem and a multi-purpose router (it could possibly work with 2 cables to the same same unit - but that would depend on the unit, and there is no guarantee). The PC would need two NICs. The configuration would go:

wall-ADSLmodem-dedicatedPC-router-EveryoneElse

I did try using a PC running RouteSentry as a proxy server. It was a dismal failure. Actually, it kind of worked, but I had to change every piece of net-based software on every machine to use the dedicated PC (with Route Sentry) as a proxy. And then many protocols, mail ftp, msn, etc, etc gave hassles, to the point when my entire life was spent running around the house fixing everyone's internet problems. Till I got to the point where some problems couldn't be fixed.

That's when I wrote the DD-WRT(Linksys) script. There are few better substitutes for running your traffic splitting on the router itself. It is completely reliable, completely seamless, and relatively easy to set up. You don't have to do anything to anyone's PCs or game consoles. You're not limited to two conections either. And with the low price of Asus routers (520GU), it is certainly a lot cheaper than using a dedicated PC.

I know I'm beginning to sound like a salesman. Sorry.

Good luck with your setup.

CyBeRmAn said:

I have considered running IPCop or RouterOS, but i have alot more experience with RouteSentry and very little experience with the linux Router options.

Click to expand...

It's never to late to learn. You will also end up with something requiring less hardware resources & fewer hassles with spam, virii etc. But at the end of the day the choice is yours.

I don't want to have to buy any additional equipment.

As far as ICS goes, you can only share one connection, instead of being a gateway for all traffic

best way to do what you want is to set up a linux gateway with ipv4 forwarding, nat masquerading, and a squid proxy. works wonders for my household =]