[lug] cable modem network topology

[D. Stimits]

Mr Viggy wrote:
> Dude, it sounds to me like all you really need is a simple bridge. Can't 
> you set a bridge up to allow clients on one side to request IP addys 
> from the other side?

I could, but one of the machines is an unprotected/out-of-date windows 
98 machine, the other is a windows 2000 machine. It's bad enough just 
connected for short periods, but with long term connects? The 98 machine 
would be attacking everything inside within a short time. I don't trust 
the windows machines, even when they are maintained. Add to this one 
final twist, that I want either a traffic shaping or class based 
queueing (I'll experiment) so one IP gets low latency, and the other two 
get reasonable web page downloads (compared to 26.4k on a 56k modem that 
shouldn't be too hard for those...the low latency at the moment both of 
the others start a big download is not so easy). So although a dedicated 
appliance that does firewalling and bridging/routing would suffice, it 
would still leave me unable to tune performance, at least in a low-cost 
appliance (perhaps I am wrong there, but I have never heard of a low-end 
  device that does class based queueing and traffic shaping). A simple 
bridge would be functional, it would meet all of the basic requirements, 
  but I don't think I would be satisfied with it in the long run. So 
although I will look at such appliances (it would be nice to find just 
what I want), I do not trust that I will find one, I will most likely 
end up with a Linux box in the middle no matter what.

D. Stimits, stimits @ idcomm.com