Newbie to firewalls trying to regain control of my connection
by xlucas from LinuxQuestions.org on (#536PV)
It was super difficult to write a title for this post and I'm still not satisfied so if anybody can think of a better one, I'll change it :)
Thing comes like this. Until a few days ago, I had my internet over DSL and I was able to access my router menu through 192.168.1.1, where I could set up port forwarding, among other useful things. I use that a lot. Now I've switched to another ISP that provides via optical fiber. When I asked about how to access my router, they said they don't allow this. I was surprised to the worst, so I called tech support to ask what I could do. I am used to spending a lot of time in the router menu, but I don't know a lot about networking really, just the basics.
The guy said he couldn't enable router menu access for me, but, he said, if what I want is open ports, he can set up a DMZ, give me the IP of the gateway and all ports would be open there. He said I could also use a "bridge" if I happened to have another router available. I don't. He blew my mind. I had to sit down and read. It seems to me that this can be useful, but on the other hand, opening all ports sounds risky. I could just connect my computer to that router socket and configure it to go directly to the DMZ, but it sounds terrible. I still don't have a second router to place there, so I thought "Maybe I can use my own computer's firewall to stand in between".
In other words, I'm considering turning my linux firewall (which I barely understand) into my... "router menu" and go directly from there to the DMZ gateway. I have all the questions you can imagine about this. Questions like:
- Does all I've said make any sense? Have I used the right words?
- Is it a good idea to proceed this way, at least temporarily? What could go wrong?
- Should I buy a second router? Should I replace the router given by the ISP with an optical fiber modem when I do it? (No idea where to get it)
- Is there some software I can use on my computer to work as a replacement for my router menu but on my system firewall instead? Any better option to go with instead?
And a lot more. If anybody can give me some hints about what to read and how to proceed, I'll be very thankful. I've been reading about iptables and ifconfig, but I don't feel totally sure of how that works, like... I want to make sure if I reset my computer changes will be lost in case I mess up, for example. Thank you so much!
Thing comes like this. Until a few days ago, I had my internet over DSL and I was able to access my router menu through 192.168.1.1, where I could set up port forwarding, among other useful things. I use that a lot. Now I've switched to another ISP that provides via optical fiber. When I asked about how to access my router, they said they don't allow this. I was surprised to the worst, so I called tech support to ask what I could do. I am used to spending a lot of time in the router menu, but I don't know a lot about networking really, just the basics.
The guy said he couldn't enable router menu access for me, but, he said, if what I want is open ports, he can set up a DMZ, give me the IP of the gateway and all ports would be open there. He said I could also use a "bridge" if I happened to have another router available. I don't. He blew my mind. I had to sit down and read. It seems to me that this can be useful, but on the other hand, opening all ports sounds risky. I could just connect my computer to that router socket and configure it to go directly to the DMZ, but it sounds terrible. I still don't have a second router to place there, so I thought "Maybe I can use my own computer's firewall to stand in between".
In other words, I'm considering turning my linux firewall (which I barely understand) into my... "router menu" and go directly from there to the DMZ gateway. I have all the questions you can imagine about this. Questions like:
- Does all I've said make any sense? Have I used the right words?
- Is it a good idea to proceed this way, at least temporarily? What could go wrong?
- Should I buy a second router? Should I replace the router given by the ISP with an optical fiber modem when I do it? (No idea where to get it)
- Is there some software I can use on my computer to work as a replacement for my router menu but on my system firewall instead? Any better option to go with instead?
And a lot more. If anybody can give me some hints about what to read and how to proceed, I'll be very thankful. I've been reading about iptables and ifconfig, but I don't feel totally sure of how that works, like... I want to make sure if I reset my computer changes will be lost in case I mess up, for example. Thank you so much!