>>>-snip-
>>>>>
>>>>>Samba has ICS? I thought it was only for connecting to Windows networks. Right now I am using Windows Internet Connection Sharing feature.
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks.
>>>>
>>>>Oh, you mean allowing two or more networked computers to share the same internet connection..... Sorry about my confusion. I don't keep abreast of WinXX buz words.
>>>>ICS is a Piece of cake. In my wife's Sony VIAO I put two ethernet cards. Her PC acts as a firewall and connects via eth0 to a Cisco 675 router set up as a dhcp server for my ISPs DLS service. Eth0 gets its IP address from the Cisco dhcp server. Eth1 has a fixed IP address and used to connect to a passive HUB to which my PC and my son's PC were attached. We both had fixed IP addresses. The Sony was setup with IPFORWARD turned on, and /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/network files on all machines were set with the respective hostnames and IP addresses. From any box I can telnet or VNC into the other boxes and do maintanence,etc... So, not only to we share the internet transparently and simultaneously, we also share apps and files. The email and newsgroup services work transparently too.
>>>>
>>>>http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/network/eznetshare.html
>>>>http://www.homenethelp.com/web/howto/linux-share-internet.asp
>>>>http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/clientcfg.htm
>>>
>>>Well I don't have a router, but the first link above seems easy to follow. I suppose I have good info to evaluate if I want to setup an old machine as a router with Linux or just bite the bullet and get a software firewall/gateway for the connection sharing. The ICS provided by Windows works but is very limited in features.
>>>
>>>Thanks.,
>>
>>Your old 486 can be set up as a router/firewall with software available in about any Linux distro. Buying a special distro to do that isn't really necessary. In fact, SuSE asks upfront if you want to set up the target box as a workstation, network server or router/firewall, and offers options based on that selection. The Cisco 675 router I mentioned above was supplied by my phone compnay as their dhcp 'modem' to their ADSL service. One could install a 56K modem (not a brain-dead winmodem) in the 486 and with Ipchains or Iptables, ipforward settings, firewire, netsaint, netstat, YaST2, RHConfig, etc..., along with appropriate settings in /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/networks and /etc/hosts (usually configured automatically by the install programs on newer distros) and have a fine, stable and extremely hack resistant router/firewall. Add Samba and marsnew and you'll have WinXX and Novell sharing capability.
>>Worked for me.
>
>Thanks for the tips and links, I think this is what I will end up doing. Do you know if a PC setup as a router can be used for other things like mySQL and such?

My wife's Sony VAIO was a P133 with 64MB of RAM running SuSE 7.3 and KDE 2.2. It was setup as the dhcp connection and internet firewall. Even while she was writing letters, doing geneology, browsing the internet or doing email there was no performance degradation here or for PostgreSQL (or MySQL I'd assume) or for internet access or for me or my son. If you didn't know that her box was also the firewall protecting her and the rest of us from viri (what are there, 5 out of 30,000 that affect Linux, and that so poorly they require user help to make them work?) and hackers. Not a single hack in 18 months. Fear not... full speed ahead.