how to make a computer to function as a router

Ben Scott dragonhawk at gmail.com
Tue Feb 7 18:00:01 EST 2006


On 2/7/06, Paul Lussier <p.lussier at comcast.net> wrote:
> Technically, if all you want to do is turn a system into a router,
> then IPTables is NOT what you want, but rather, something like routed.

  Well, *technically*, what routed does is implement various dynamic
routing protocols.  You don't *need* those to be a router.

  Any Linux system with an IP stack and "IP forwarding" enabled in the
kernel is automatically a router -- if, perhaps, a simplistic one. 
All an Internet Protocol router has to do is accept IP packets, decide
where they ought to go next, and send them there.  The fact that it
doesn't say "Cisco" on the chassis and implement every protocol ever
invented doesn't mean it isn't a router.  :)

  IPTables, as Paul rightly points out, implement various additional
features above and beyond basic IP routing.  Those features include
filtering (firewall) and packet mangling (NAT/masquerade/port
forwarding/etc.).  Traffic shaping (bandwidth
limiting/prioritization/QoS/etc.) is in there somewhere, although I
can't remember if it's technically part of IPTables or not.

> Paul "Leaving the 'sake of pedantry' for Ben to provide"

  I wasn't going to say anything until I saw that.  ;-)

-- Ben "Speak of the devil" Scott



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