[NTLUG:Discuss] A Voice in the Wilderness

[Fred Hensley]

Okay, I give up.  I'm putting on my best kindergarten playground face
and screaming "Uncle!"  In other words, I need help...

I'm presently running a home network using two computers, one Windows XP
(Wife's), one dual boot SUSE 9.0 Linux/Windows (mine).  We're connected
via an IPCOP v1.3 firewall to our Comcast cable internet provider.  All
is installed and appears to be working well until I purchased the
dreaded Linksys WRT54G wireless router and attempted to integrate it
into my configuration.  Over the past several months I've repeatedly
tried to get this connection working, but to no avail, and am now
officially out of time...

Further, I'm also needing to integrate another pc running Debian as a
forum server using fudforum/MySQL/PHP4/Apache 1.3.  All the components
are installed, but still require initial configuration.  I've set up an
account for dynamic dns with dyndns.org.

What I'm hoping is that one of our intrepid NTLUG'er members might be
interested or willing to contact me off list for some support or even an
impromptu housecall.  

The three important things I need to do are as follows:  
1.  IPCOP - Walkthrough the current configuration and security settings
of the installation to ensure that it is properly configured.  Enable
VPN and SSH access, as well as the Dynamic DNS support.
2.  Integrate the Wireless router.  Oddly enough, I am attempting to
integrate this on the "green" port of the IPCOP so as to ensure that my
wireless notebook PC is protected by the firewall.  To that end, I am
using MAC Address security, WEP (or better), and disabling transmission
of the SSID to limit visibility to the outside world.
3.  Configure the relevant portions of PHP4/Apache/MySQL with fudforum
so that it is initially up-and-going and externally addressable via the
"orange" IPCOP port.

All the necessary hardware is ready to go, although I may need to
upgrade the router firmware to fix a dynamic dns issue.  

A sharp person could probably navigate me through this in 2-3 hours, and
for which I would gladly buy them lunch and/or pay some appropriate fee.
If a housecall were in order, I'm located in Richardson within a few
blocks of UTD campus.

Meanwhile I'm going to patch a couple of pieces of drywall in my study
which now bear a curious resemblance to my forehead. (just kidding)

Thanks,

Fred Hensley
Fred.hensley at comcast.net