Linux as intranet server

[Susan G. Kleinmann]

Hi Jim --

You said:
> A project I would like to work on is building an intranet server. 

You might want to check out 
  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/IP-Masquerade

The critical section is 3.1, where you are told what to turn on when
you compile the kernel.  Not to ruin the suspense, but all you have to do
is say yes to:

CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL 
CONFIG_MODULES 
CONFIG_NET 
CONFIG_FIREWALL 
CONFIG_INET 
CONFIG_IP_FORWARD 
CONFIG_IP_FIREWALL 
CONFIG_IP_MASQUERADE 
CONFIG_IP_ALWAYS_DEFRAG 
CONFIG_DUMMY 

Then, if you've already got your intranet working, and if you've got it
set up so that your Linux box is the gateway, you're done.
(But don't check that things are working by using ping from an 
inside-your-network host to an outside-your-network host, because ping
won't work, or so the docs say.)

You might also want to see this recent article in SysAdmin about Firewalls:
  http://www.reseau.nl/articles/rdpub/firewall/article.html

HTH,
Susan Kleinmann