[cobalt-users] Port Forwarding

["dr. mikey." <mikey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hey now,

we currently use a qube2 to distribute internet access accross our lan. 
for connectivity we have a dsl line with one static ip.  the dsl modem
is hooked directly into the qube2, which is then connected to one of our
ethernet hubs.  we would like to configure the qube to allow port
forwarding of tcp connections and udp packets so that offsite users can
access our internally hosted filemaker pro databases through the dsl
line (filemaker has registered port 5003 for this purpose).  currently
our filemaker server is an imac, which does have an static intranet ip,
though of course the qube is the only computer with a static internet
ip.  we want to use port forwarding so as to avoid having to obtain more
static internet ip addresses, installing a router/hub between the dsl
modem and the qube, and placing our imac on that new hub where it would
then be vulnerable (at this time the qube is our only firewall).

cobalt tech support told me that port forwarding is something that is
not currently supported, and at this time they have no idea when it
might be.  they did, however, point me to a small c++ utility called
"portfwd" (available at:
http://freshmeat.net/appindex/1999/11/29/943881752.html), which they
claimed would do the trick for us, although they could not help me with
the installation or configuration because it is unsupported 3rd party
software.  unfortunately, i have only limited experience with linux, and
was unable to get it to work by myself (it failed to even compile
correctly using the make command, and i'm afraid i'm not qualified to
troubleshoot it by myself).

i was hoping that this problem (i.e., port forwarding) had already been
addressed and solved by someone on the list, or that someone would have
some insight as to the best way for me to proceed.  or even better, that
someone had already patched the portfwd program so it would compile and
run on a cobalt server. 

any ideas and thoughts you can offer are greatly appreciated.

thank you for your time,

mikey

-- 
mike songster <mikey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
work1: http://www.biosearchtech.com
work2: http://www.chem.umn.edu/orgs/ampepsoc

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