Setting up a router in front of my server

[Alex Pennace]

On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 01:40:01AM -0500, David Kramer wrote:
> I just picked up a Linksys WRT54G wireless router with 4-port hub (still 
> shrinkwrapped, so tell me if that was a bad choice sooner than later).  I 
> want to use it as my firewall, but there's a couple of ways of playing this.

I am pleased with my Linksys WRT54G. The one hitch I've encountered so
far is that WEP doesn't appear to work when the WRT54G is used in
conjunction with the Linksys WRE54G range extender. I'm still working
on getting WEP enabled.

> I'm reading up on the whole DMZ concept, and it seems like a straight 
> pass-through, so what does that buy you over hooking up the machine 
> straight to the DSL modem?  It means I don't have to configure individual 
> ports to go to my server, but it adds no protection to my server either.

In my case, I decided that the drawbacks outweighed the advantages, so
my main machine is the gateway, and the WRT54G acts as a wireless
base. I do not employ elaborate firewalling, since TCP wrappers and
other user-space tools are certainly more than sufficient.