[luau] computer set-up advice

[beesond001 at hawaii.rr.com]

Rodney,

	You could quite easily configure the first computer to be a 
router/firewall/mailserver.  MonMotha's firewall (see the link at 
http://mplug.org) will also do the IP Masquerading for you.  If the web 
site you host is getting too much traffic for the router, shift it to the 
second computer behind the firewall, and let the router do its thing all 
by itself.  

	You can use secure shell to access files on all the computers if you 
like.  If you are ***very*** careful and brave enough, you may try to use 
telnet or ftp on the internal side of the LAN to access and exchange 
files between boxes. Personally, I prefer to leave my firewall box locked 
up pretty tight and I don't run any unnecessary services there lest I 
tempt fate too much.  So I use only secure shell to get into my firewall 
box, and I have written the firewall rules so that I can only do that 
from inside the LAN.  I also would be a little leery about running a 
"SAMBA" server on the firewall box for the same reason.  It would 
probably be safer to use the second computer as a fileserver for all 
three boxes.  That way, your file server is behind the firewall, is 
fairly well protected, and is running on a relatively fast box that 
probably has a much faster I/O speed than the P200.  You can also run 
another firewall on the second box to help protect yourself, but that may 
not be necessary.  

	Other folks on the list may have some thoughts on this, I would seek out 
as much help as you can find before you start stringing cat 5 cables ;-)) 
 

Good luck,
Ben   
     


> I guess my main question is, Is computer 1 powerful enough to provide 
those
> services? If so, is this reasonably easy to set-up? Will the files on
> computer 1 be accessible from computers 2 & 3?

> Thanks,
> Rodney