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Last
revision of this document: |
Prerequisites to understand the content of this document:*
General knowledge how to operate personal-computers (PC);
additionaly how to configure a PC to be able to boot from a CD to
install the operating-system. |
Approximate expenditure of time to work over this document:Time to work on: ca. ½ to 1 hour; depending on your experience with Linux. Overall time: 1 hour to 3 hours; depending on the speed of the CD-ROM-drive and the harddisk. |
==>
RedHat-Linux
Version 8.0 is suitable for operating a Router on a less powerful
(older) PC.
The minimum requierements for the hardware are a
Pentium I processor with 100 Mhz, 64 MB of RAM and 2,5 GB
Harddisk-space.
This allows to reuse an older notebook as it
needs less space and power-consumption than a Desktop- or Tower-PC.
This
version of the Router-installation is only suitable if your
connection to the ISP (Internet Service Provider) is via a DSL-modem
with Ethernet-connection or (unlikely in 2007) Dial-In over phone.
If your DSL-modem is for connection to the USB-port, you need to
install at least Linux Fedora Core 5,
as in all versions before the adressing of USB-devices might be
difficult and time-consuming.
The
'Router' handles the connection of the internal network to an ISP.
To
achieve the connection, a modem for an ADSL / DSL-connection
(Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line / Digital Subscriber Line), a
modem for a cable-tv-provider or even an older modem for a
dial-up-connection can be used.
Addidtionally, this machine can be used as a printer-server and a telefacs-server accessible by all workstation on the internal network.
All following instructions are for installing RedHat-Linux Version 8.0.
Preparation:It might be possible, that your PC is not able to boot from the CD-Rom-drive. In
that case, the utility SmartBootManager can be used to boot from a
Diskette first and then select the CD-ROM-drive as boot-device. |
Shortly
after the boot-process from diskette or CD beginns, a selection for
text-based or graphical-installation can be done.
As the Router
needs neither a mouse nor an expensive video-graphic-adapter, the
following installation-instructions are for Text Mode.
This in
done by entering linux text when
the selection is displayed.
As
the following instructions are tailored for the 'english' version of
the installer, select 'Englisch' as language, please.
Please
select the appropriate keyboard for the key-arrangement you are
using.
You might also define your mouse, if there is one
connected.
As
the Router is the 'security guard' to prevent attacks of all kind
which might be come from the public internet and target the private
net, packages to be installed have to be carefully selected to avoid
installing security holes.
Therefore the option Custom
is selected.
It
is advisable not to install another operating-system on the server;
therefore select Autopartition
and
Remove
all partitions on this system thereafter.
After a screen with a confirmation request the screen with the view of the actual disk-partitioning carried out by the installer is shown.
Several screens with proposed choices are displayed; do not change the default values.
Network
Configuration:
This
option is not shown if the NIC (network interface card) is not
detected during the installation-process.
This is usual when you
use a notebook as the driver for the PC-Card services is not yet
loaded.
In
this case, please apply the installation-instructions described in
Configure
Network Interface later
in this document.
[ ] Use
bootp/dhcp (do not check)
Activate
on boot (check)
IP
Adress: 192.168.0.254
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway (IP): (leave blank as this is the Router providing the Gateway-function)
Primary
DNS, Secondary DNS
and Tertiary DNS:
The
TCP/IP-Addresses of the Domain-Name-Servers (DNS) are provided by
your Internet-Service-Provider (ISP) .
Here is a list of some
Austrian ISP:
A-ON: 195.3.96.67, 195.3.96.68
UTA:
195.70.224.61, 195.70.224.62
If there is already a second NIC installed (for DSL- or cable-modem connection to an ISP), the previous screen appears again. As the parameterization depends on the kind of connection used, leave the values unchanged for now. Detailed instructions will follow later in this document.
This screen appears only, if the Network Configuration was requested in the step before.
Hostname: router
The
setup of the Firewall is done with a customized script later (see
Linux – Firewall and Masquerading).
Therefore do not install
a Firewall now; select
(*) No firewall
Select additional languages if you want to see operating system messages in different languages.
If you selected more than one language, the next screen will ask to define the Default Language.
A good choice might be to set your server to UTC-time, therefore select
(*) Hardware clock set to GMT
To set the Time Zone you are in, select the city of your region.
Choose a Root Password (for Administrator-functions).
N.B.:
Passwords are case sensitive; so check if 'caps-lock' is enabled when
you enter the Root Password.
My recomendation is, to use only
lower case characters for passwords.
Please
skip this step without entering 'normal user account' s.
Users are
defined later when access rights are defined.
Do not change the default values.
The
following list comprises the package-groups which have to be
installed.
If
some other packages are already selected by default, then unselect
them !
Printing Support
As some individual packages have to be selected (depending on intended features of the Router), also select
(*) Select individual packages
Depending
on the intended services an application programs the following
packages must be selected.
To expand or collapse groups of the
list, select the group (e.g. Application/System)
and press the Enter-key.
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Application/System
|
Prerequisite if a printer will be connected to the Router and this printer should be accessible from Workstations running Microsoft** Windows**. |
|
System
Environment/Base |
Prerequisite for the script discussed in document Linux – Firewall and Masquerading. |
|
System
Environment/Daemons
|
Prerequisite if a printer will be connected to the Router and this printer should be accessible from Workstations running Linux and using the Internet-Printing-Protokoll (IPP). |
It
might happen that further packages have to be installed to fulfill
dependencies.
The necessary packages are listed; please do not
make any changes and confirm the installation by clicking [ OK ].
After that step, the copy-process starts and your presence is only requested to change the installation-CDs.
To
create a Boot-Disk is not absolutely necessary as the
Installation-CDs contain facilities to recover a harddisk that is no
longer bootable.
My personal experience tells me, that a Boot
Diskette is lost when it is really needed.
Remark:
The
Graphic-User-Interface (GUI) is not automatically started whenever
Linux is started.
If you need a GUI for subsequent tasks, log in
and start GNOME with the following command:
startx
The
instructions for the standard-installation end here.
If you
would like to switch of your computer now, please use (when GUI is
running)
Menu (Red Hat) – Log Out – Shut
Down
or enter
shutdown
-h now
at the command-line.
Installation-steps which have to be done manually are described in the following steps.
If
the network-interface-cards(NIC) were not detected during the
standard-installation, the parameters for the NIC connectiong the
Router to the internal network must be configured manually.
The
configuration of the NIC, that is connecting the Router to the ISP
(Internet Service Provider) will be described in the document with
the steps to setup the internet-connection.
If
you probably came to this step because you are using a notebook with
PC-Cards – and those were not detected.
If you feel insecure
that the PC-Card(s) is/are not working, please consult PC-Card
(PCMCIA) Troubleshooting.
For
now, only the PC-Card connecting the Router to the internal network,
will be configured.
It is assumed, that this network-connection
has the symbolic name 'eth0' (Ethernet 0), so the file
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
is established.
DEVICE=eth0
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
IPADDR=192.168.0.254
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.0.0
ONBOOT=yes
This
example assumes, that the TCP/IP-address
of the Router is 192.168.0.254.
If
you are not so familiar with Linux and you ask yourself how to start
an editor:
Either vi
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 at the
command-line
or the selection Menu (Red Hat) –
Accessories – Text Editor when the GUI is running.
This
configuration is effective after a restart of Linux and can be
verified by entering
ifconfig
eth0
on the command-line
Under
certain circumstances the TCP-/IP-address defined during
standard-installation is not put to the configuration-file
/etc/hosts.
If you do not find a line starting with the chosen TCP/IP-address
(192.168.0.254 in this example), please insert the missing line.
Here
is an example how the configuration-file /etc/hosts
should
look like :
#
Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that
requiere network functionality will
fail
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.0.254
router.javascout.biz server
If
you are not so familiar with Linux and you ask yourself how to start
an editor:
Either vi
/etc/hosts at the command-line
or the selection
Menu
(Red
Hat) – Accessories
– Text Editor when the GUI is running.
To
verify if the correct driver for the network-interface-card (NIC) was
installed and the NIC can be accessed; restart the computer and enter
the following commands:
modprobe
eth0
dmesg | tail
The
last lines of the log-file will be shown.
Unfortunately each
driver logs its special message; but if the Hardware-ID of the
Network-Interface-Card is shown (e.g. 0060 97 72 b0 93) it is a good
sign.
The
correct setup of the TCP/IP-address can be monitored with the
following command:
ping
192.168.0.254 (where
the TCP/IP-Address of the just installed machine must be used - if
you did not take the one from the examples)
An
output similar to the following should be shown:
PING
192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254) from 192.168.0.254 : 56(84) bytes of
data
64 bytes from 192.168.0.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=2.0
ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1.3 ms
64
bytes from 192.168.0.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=1.1 ms
64 bytes
from 192.168.0.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.9 ms
The
'Pinging' can be interrupted with the key-combination CTRL-C and
thereafter a statistic is shown (example):
---
192.168.0.254 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets
received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.9/1.2/2.0
ms
If
the computer is already connected to a local area network (LAN), then
a working connection can be tested by 'Pinging' a known
TCP/IP-Address of another computer connected to the LAN with the
command:
ping
192.168.0.1 (where
the Operating-System of the pinged computer must be running and the
TCP/IP-adress must exist)
An
output similar to the following should be shown:
PING
192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.254) from 192.168.0.254 : 56(84) bytes of
data
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=3.2 ms
64
bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1.4 ms
64 bytes
from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=1.3 ms
64 bytes from
192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=1.3 ms
64 bytes from
192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=1.3 ms
The
'Pinging' can be interrupted with the key-combination CTRL-C and
thereafter a statistic is shown (example):
---
192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets
received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1.3/1.7/3.2 ms
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Document |
Content |
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This step is
necessary, if one or more printers will be attached to the
Router. |
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Service-applications
(applications that are not direct accessible by an user but
inevitable for work) are (among others): |