Very Computer

I am thinking about purchasing a Linksys Router for my W2k Machine and
Linux machine. Currently my linux machine acts as a router for my W2K
machine. But this prevents the W2K machine from playing a lot of
online games.

If I purchased the Linksys router for my W2k machine and Linux box,
would I be able to play online games? Or is it still the same problem?

--
Steve Connet            Remove USENET to reply via email

Generally, most routers you purchase for home use will tell you in
whether they support online *.  NetGear Gateway Router does support
online * as I am sure does the LinkSys.

Quote:>I am thinking about purchasing a Linksys Router for my W2k Machine and
>Linux machine. Currently my linux machine acts as a router for my W2K
>machine. But this prevents the W2K machine from playing a lot of
>online games.
>If I purchased the Linksys router for my W2k machine and Linux box,
>would I be able to play online games? Or is it still the same problem?

The Linksys doesn't solve the problem any differently than
would a Linux solution. Basically on the Linksys and all similar
devices, they tell you to designate your * machine as a
DMZ machine. Which now makes it the "exposed" machine to all
internet cracking people. Not neccessarily a good thing.
If you want to make your * PC a DMZ host you could
do this ipchains rules on your Linux box just as easily.

The more correct solution would probably be to figure out
what ports the game in question requires, and change your
Linux firewall rules to pass those ports to machine X.
Thus instead of completely exposing all ports of the
* PC you only expose the ones you really need to.

Take a look at www.smoothwall.org. Nice little linux
firewall distro that makes administering your firewall
box just as simple as the Linksys. You hit a web page
and fill in the blanks to configure ports, etc.

--
        "Who needs horror movies when we have Microsoft"?
         -- Christine Comaford, PC Week, 27/9/95