A multitude of reasons exist as to why one would want to build a custom router vs. suffer with the performance, reliability issues, and limitations of an off-the-shelf solution. In the spirit of keeping this post short, I won’t launch into a long diatribe on the pros and cons of each here, but I have plenty of thoughts on this, so if you are interested, just ask.
What we are about to do is configure an incredibly fast and stable router/gateway solution for your home/office in about 15 minutes. (Note: This post assumes you already have your machine loaded up with a fresh copy of Debian 5.0 Lenny and you have the two needed NICs installed.
First, let’s make three initial assumptions:
- eth0 is the public interface (the Cable/DSL modem is attached to this NIC)
- eth1 is the private interface (your switch is connected to this NIC)
- All of the client computers, servers, WAPs, etc. are connected to the switch