[CS-FSLUG] My turn for being clueless

[Ed Hurst]

I mentioned this a few months ago, then put it on the back burner to
solve more pressing needs. Now the issue is before me again. Let's
assume I know zero, because it close to that.

I run FreeBSD 5.3 and connect via dialup. Most of you won't be able to
help with peculiarities of FreeBSD, but I still need a general framework
of "what must happen" for this to work.

I have been given a 5-port switch from AOpen (AOW-605U). My box has a
working ethernet card, so those two are now connected, but nothing
configured because I can't answer all the config questions just yet. I'm
waiting info on FreeBSD config data for configuring the NIC. I have no
idea if the switch needs configuring.

I am connecting my wife's (shudder) XP box to the switch, so that I can
serve PPP to her. Then I can remove the internal modem which is causing
crashes and other problems. Her ethernet connection is built on the
board. The idea is that no outside machine has any hope of passing
anythying to her that doesn't pass my IP filter. For now, I'm assuming
my firewall will allow in only those things her machine has asked for
specifically: webpages, e-mail, FTP, etc. I see no need to worry about
caching, DNS, etc. I may try to fetch her mail. So I guess for her it's
PPPoE. To keep it simple for now, she will only be able to connect after
my machine has dialed up by explicit command. No auto-dial on demand for
her.

Aside from the idea that I need to assign internal addresses somthing
like 192.168.0.1 for mine and 192.168.0.2 for hers, I can't guess much
about the very basic networking concepts many of you take for granted.
I've never done anything with networking beyond getting myself connected
via dialup.

What can you tell me, brothers and sisters?

-- 
Ed Hurst
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