[GLLUG] Linux and ATTBI Question

[David Lee Lambert]

On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, Keith Harrison wrote:

> Does W95 do dhcp? At home I just plugged my linksys router up to the
> cable modem and set it for dhcp and it took off.

It sure does -- it wants to do DHCP by default.  I like setting up my LAN
with staic IPs,  and so I have to tinker around differently with every
verion of Windows I use.

My roomate had an ATTBI account when I moved in,  and he decided the
simplest thing to do was to get a router so I could hook up to it.  He
asked the ATT tech support people,  and they told him that he doesn't have
to pay extra for other computers as long as they're behind the router...

My only complaint is that,  while bandwidth from my computer to MSU is now
a lot higher than using a modem to dial in to MichNet,  delay is
significantly higher.  I've done a few traces and it looks like traffic
goes from here,  to New York,  to Chicago,  and back to Lansing;  ping
times are often over 200 ms,  while they were a pretty flat 60 ms or so
before.

Oh,  ATT has clauses forbidding "servers" in their AUP as well,  but I
don't think they enforce it actively.  My roommate has been running Apache
and an Ultima Online shard (on his Win XP box) for several months without
any hassle.  I don't think it fits the spirit of their policy to turn off
SSH and VNC login,  so I've left those running on my box...

This leads to a question.  I'd like to allow FTP from the local network.
I don't want to allow FTP from systems not on the local network;  first,
it's insecure;  second, it's a real pain to configure;  third, it's not
clear that it even works through the firewall.  I can make any files I
want to available by HTTP,  and people with accounts can use SCP to copy
files on and off the system.

Is there any way to have the FTP program give an informative error-message
to people who try to connect from foreign networks,  while still allowing
full access for users from the local net?

-- 
DLL
http://www.cse.msu.edu/~lamber45/