Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.os.linux.networking > #3159

Re: Help needed building a personal gateway

Show all headers | View raw

On 20.11.14 13:30, Mark Casazza wrote:
> Let me start by apologizing for my complete lack of knowledge in the command line area for configuring networks.
>
> This my challenge:
>
> I want to build a universal gateway to use in my RV to make connecting to the Internet easy. I frequent many locations with different wifi or no wifi connectivity. For the no wifi areas I have a hotspot. In the RV I generally have a server (Win 2008 R2), 3 laptops (Win 7), 2 smart phones (Android), and a mini tablet (Android).  I want to make a universal gateway out of an Acer A0751h-1545.  My research took me to ClearOS as my OS choice, but I cannot seem to configure it as needed.  These are my requirements:
>
> * The connection to the Internet must be made with a USB NIC with a high gain antenna

This is just a routing/firewall setup issue. It is possible using Linux 
tools, but it may be that the graphic tools do not bend so far.

You *do* need an address translating (NAT) firewall in the setup. The 
standard iptables package of Linux is good for this.

> * Internal wireless must be provided by the built in wifi adapter

This is a pain. A wireless network needs a base station, and few 
built-in WiFi adapters can be bent so far. You could get a WiFi router 
and connect it to the wired internal network instead.

> * Internal wired network access must be provided by the built in wired network adapter

OK

> * The Gateway must provide DHCP services on the LAN

This can be done with many different tools. My favorite is dnsmasq which 
also provides a DNS cache and local network host name service.

> * I only want 1 internal LAN or if I must have two, I need to route traffic from one to the other.  My devices frequently remote into each other and share files.

Both are doable. The external WiFi router solves this to one network, 
but for several adapters, it is easier to set each to a separate 
network, and provide routing between them. There is also a possibility 
to bridge the wired adapter and WiFi together, but all WiFi drivers are 
not happy with it. A bridged connection is seen as an Ethernet switch, 
with all the participating adapters in the same subnet.

> * I would strongly prefer the DHCP server to remember clients and reassign then the same IP time after time.

This is actually a function of the clients. A well-behaving DHCP client 
asks for the addres it had previously.

The DCHP server can be configured so that a certain MAC (hardware) 
address will get a pre-defined fixed address.

> * I want a GUI or web based way to connect to the Internet via the wifi adapter.  Connecting to various wifi sources at the command line level will be a pain and not something I can teach to those traveling with me.

The NetworkManager present in many modern distributions will do this.

> ClearOS managed to recognize all my network adapters:
> * Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E (Built in wired)
> * Qualcomm Atheros AR242x/AR542x (Built in Wireless)
> * Ralink RT2501/RT2573 (USB Wireless)
>
> But the ClearOS network configuration tools do not allow me to configure a wireless adapter as the "External Connection"  The last time I explored configuring routing tables I was working in SCO Unix and I have long since forget everything I knew about command line tools and configuration files.  If you can point me in the right direction I'm sure I can get this going but I can't promise I won't ask some novice follow up questions.  If ClearOS is not a good choice, I would prefer CentOS as I use that as my Web Host OS and I am very comfortable with it.
>

It seems that ClearOS is based on Red Hat, so google for instructions 
setting up networking in RH.

And, sorry, my recent experience is from Debian -based distributions, so 
please don't ask me for specific instructions.

-- 

Tauno Voipio

Back to comp.os.linux.networking | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Help needed building a personal gateway Mark Casazza <markcasazza@gmail.com> - 2014-11-20 03:30 -0800
  Re: Help needed building a personal gateway Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2014-11-20 14:23 +0200
  Re: Help needed building a personal gateway Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> - 2014-11-20 04:55 -0800
    Re: Help needed building a personal gateway Frank Stutzman <stutzman@cat2.kjsl.com> - 2014-11-20 13:20 +0000
      Re: Help needed building a personal gateway Gordon <Gordon@clear.net.nz> - 2014-11-23 04:19 +0000

csiph-web