I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction.
We currently have a network of several computers setup with a router for internet access. Each machine is setup with an internal IP address (in the 192.168. range), with each machine pointing to the router as the gateway.
I now want to route all internet access through a Linux box (so the IP address of the Linux box becomes the gateway for other machines). The Linux box will forward the TCP/IP packets to the router if, and only if, the IP address of the source machine is within an 'allowed' list. If the machine's IP address is not within the allowed list, the request for internet access is disallowed. Any returned internet traffic will pass transparently through the Linux box and back to the requesting machine.
In a way I guess this is an internal firewall, or a proxy (although my experience in this field is limited, so the application of these words may be incorrect)?
What tools are available for me to implement this in Linux? I guess the Linux box will need 2 ethernet cards, one for incoming traffic (from internal machines) and one for outgoing (to the router). Where is the best place to look for configuring Linux to do this?
Finally, it would be really cool if I would log the amount of access from each internal machine (in Mb of traffic transferred).
Thanks for your help,
Ashley
Dr. Ashley T. Howes PhD Web Developer Email: ashley@blueskyresearch.net Web: http://www.ashleyhowes.com
"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return"