[Ham-Computers] Setting up home network

[Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC)]

Hi Hi
Isn't that an oxymoron ie Microsoft releasing the most secure operating
system?

The only way we will be secure from a MS OS is if it is left in its
shrink wrapped box and buried 6ft under in reinforced concrete.

my 2 South African cents

73 de Hylton
ZR1HPC



Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:
> Frank, 	
> 	
> Based on what I am told, Windows 98SE is more like a new OS Windows 99. It is
> vastly different than Windows 98! MS did not call it Win 99, as all the focus
> was being put on Windows 2000 and to put something between Win 98 and Win 2K
> would have been bad marketing.	
> 	
> hence, Windows 98SE is one of the most secure OS that MS has released, so it is
> said.  	
>    
> 
> ----------
> From: frank <fkamp at comcast.net>
> To: Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications,  or  
> experimenting <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Setting up home network
> Date: Friday, September 16, 2005 10:02 AM
> 
> "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" wrote:
> 
>>The 200 MHZ is not a Pentium 2 Phil, it is just a Pentium. The two started
>>where, 333 or 400 MHZ?
>>
>>When did you add a hardware router? is that RS one?
>>
>>I've got $20 wagered that Phil crashes and burns and has to reformat!
> 
> 
> Maybe, maybe not. Anytime you connect a computer to broadband service
> and depend on a simple software firewall, you risk polution.  Especially
> whan the computer runs something like XP.
> 
> I have been running a small LAN connected to a cable modem for over five
> years without incident.  I have five computers running off the LAN.  All
> these computers run Win98SE or some version of Linux.  They all have
> software firewalls.  I started with Zone alarm and am now using TPF
> (Tiny Personal Firewall) on all the windows machines.  
> 
> In addition, I also have a 486-33 machine running Dachstine Linux
> firewall/router. The cable modem connects to eth0 via cat5 to the Linux
> box. A second NIC in that box (eth1) connects to the LAN with coax
> (RG-58 and BNC connectors).  No need for a hub and the thinnet, 10baseT
> cabling is fully shielded keeping ethernet hash inside the cable and ham
> radio interference out.
> 
> 10baseT is also very inexpensive.  I have under $100 invested in NIC
> cards and cable.  Yes, it is only 10mhz but that is still nearly ten
> times faster than the cable modem and only has to support five
> computers.
> 
> The Linux firewall/router uses ipchains and boots off a write protected
> floppy.  Runs out of ramdisk after booting.  Reboot and you have a clean
> system.  Only takes 16meg of ram.  10baseT is a simple, daisy chain,
> networking approach.  The only critical thing about it is the 50
> termination on the far end of the cable.
> 
> Recently I have added a hub, mainly to support the cat5 connection to
> the on board ethernet connection on a sixth computer running a GA-7VAXP
> motherboard.  I have also added a linksys wireless router to the hub so
> that my son-in-law can connect to the internet with his wireless Apple
> laptop when he visits.
> 
> Now if I had two computers, one running win98, the other running XP, I
> would connect them to a cable modem thusly.  I would add another NIC to
> the win98 machine and enable the win98 connection sharing feature.  The
> second machine, XP, would connect via a cross-connected cat5 cable. 
> Both machines would run tiny personal firewall.  That way you have a two
> computer LAN for the cost of one NIC and a couple of cables.
> 
> There are other ways of doing this but either way, I would take the
> following precautions.  Install the tiny personal firewall to reject
> everything initially.  Then open ports as needed.  Also, run an Adaware
> program on each computer before connecting to the ISP.  Isolate or
> remove anything the adaware program finds.  Mske sure that the windows
> machines only use TCP.  Disable any Netbui or other protocols.
> 
> Regards,
> Frank Kamp
> K5DKZ
> 
> 
> Over the years I have used both commercial and free virus scaning
> software.  I have never had any of it find a virus, but all of it slows
> down the computer when it runs in real time.  Now I dont bother and rely
> on the firewalls and email filters.
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-- 
========================================================================
Hylton Conacher - Linux user # 229959 at http://counter.li.org
Currently using SuSE 9.0 Professional with KDE 3.1
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