[zebra 23122] Re: Zebra a good fix for gaming issues?

[Tino Wildenhain]

Hi,

Elijah Anderson wrote:
> Sorry if this message is a double post, I am new to the whole mailing 
> list idea and missed a couple steps in subscribing before sending.
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> I'm having an issue with one of my games.  The issue is that the game 
> (Battlefield 2142) uses so many ports, that it interferes with everyone 
> else on my network because all those ports have to be forwarded to my 
> machine, and if I don't have the ports forwarded, I can't connect to any 
> of the game servers.
...
> 
> What I'm thinking of is to remove the hardware router, set up a software 
> router on a small Linux machine that I'm already using as a personal 
> server, and use that to act as the router for the local network. Which 
> brings us to my first and second questions: Would Zebra be a good 
> solution for this, or would I still have the same issues, and what 
> should I do for a firewall solution to keep my local network safe and 
> secure without having to throw up firewalls on all the machines?

Well Zebra is not a "router" but rather an implementation of routing
protocols. What does this mean? The routing - meaning forward of network
(payload) protocolls is done by the network kernel of the respective
operanding system. Zebra works ontop of this by manipulating the rules
of this forwarding.

You problem is not really a routing problem - you still need to forward
ports. This means these Ports are not available for other people using
the same single outside IP address.

The only solution if ports are a problem: get a subnet and create a 
bidirectional NAT mapping between your system and one fixed IP of the
subnet. Distribute all the other IPs dynamically for the other users.

Thats a moderate simple static configuration. Btw, many "hardware"
home routers are running linux - did you check yours? If so, you
can easily (or quite easily ;) change even advanced settings or compile
a new system.

Regards
Tino