[ale] Assistance needed with set-up (LAN/firewall/ipmasq)

[Daniel Woodard]

Hello,

I humbly come to the list seeking assistance in my project.

I'm primarily a computer artist, but dabble in the technical as well. Every 
so often, I pick up a Linux distro and install it, muck around,and then 
eventually my other work picks up and at some point I forget where I was 
and wipe the Linux partition off my dual boot WinNT box. I started with Red 
Hat 5.1 and now use SuSE 6.1.

Well, now I have a dedicated machine for Linux and an actual task I want to 
use it for. Unfortunately, while I believe I could complete the set-up by 
myself, it's just a totally inefficient process, and would probably take me 
100 times longer than somebody who knows what they are doing- ie I've had 
great luck as a hack, but I actually want to accomplish something this time.

What I am doing is somewhat simple I'm sure.

I have 1 SuSE 6.1 Linux box, 2 WinNT boxes and 1 Mac box. I also have a 4 
port cable modem and a 5 port 10/100 hub.

I would like to use the Linux box to ipmasq the cable modem out to my other 
3 computers.

I would like to use the Linux box as a firewall.

I would like to use the Linux box as a fileserver/bridge for the WinNT and 
the Mac.

My experience is limited to: I can set-up the Linux box in a raw state with 
functioning X windows and two ethernet cards. I have gotten SAMBA to work 
in the past for connecting to my WinNT boxes. Um, wow, I guess that's it.

My fear is that it will take me a very long time to figure out how to 
perform the above. I edited the rc.config file about 50 times last night 
alone and still have not connected the Linux box to the Internet, though I 
can ping my two WinNT boxes. It's just too hunt and peck for me, and even 
if I got it working, I don't have a clue in regards security.

I'm interested in finding someone to act as a mentor to me in this process. 
In exchange, I can provide cash, a nice dinner for you and your gal, a warm 
feeling in your soul that you helped somebody out, or help somebody with 
graphics questions in multimedia or print.

Obviously, I'm in need and thus flexible. We can meet face to face if this 
is something that somebody thinks can be done in one sitting, or a phone 
and/or e-mail relationship could be utilized. I also promise to shield you 
from anything to do with the WinNT or Mac boxes in case they are viewed as 
computing's answer to ebola.

Thanks a lot.
_____________________________________________________

Daniel Woodard

daniel.woodard at extricate.com
design at mindspring.com