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Centos / Redhat: Configure Centos As A Software Router With Two Interfaces

This document provides instructions for configuring a CentOS or Redhat Linux system to act as a software router with two network interfaces. It describes attaching an internal network via eth0 and an external network via eth1, enabling IP forwarding and masquerading using iptables to share the internet connection, and configuring client machines to use the Linux system as their gateway.

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23 views

Centos / Redhat: Configure Centos As A Software Router With Two Interfaces

This document provides instructions for configuring a CentOS or Redhat Linux system to act as a software router with two network interfaces. It describes attaching an internal network via eth0 and an external network via eth1, enabling IP forwarding and masquerading using iptables to share the internet connection, and configuring client machines to use the Linux system as their gateway.

Uploaded by

the 3men2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CentOS / Redhat : Configure

CentOS as a Software Router with


two interfaces

Linux can be easily configured to share an internet connection


using iptables. All you need to have is, two network interface
cards as follows:

a) Your internal (LAN) network connected via eth0 with static ip


address 192.168.0.1

b) Your external WAN) network is connected via eth1 with static


ip address 10.10.10.1 ( public IP provided by ISP )
Please note that interface eth1 may have public IP address or IP
assigned by ISP. eth1 may be connected to a dedicated DSL /
ADSL / WAN / Cable router:

Step # 1: Enable Packet Forwarding


Login as the root user. Open /etc/sysctl.conf file
# vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4:


net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
Save and close the file. Restart networking:
# service network restart

Step # 2: Enable IP masquerading

In Linux networking, Network Address Translation (NAT) or


Network Masquerading (IP Masquerading) is a technique of
transceiving network traffic through a router that involves re-
writing the source and/or destination IP addresses and usually
also the TCP/UDP port numbers of IP packets as they pass
through. In short, IP masquerading is used to share the internet
connection.

Share internet connection


To share network connection via eth1, enter the following rule
at command prompt (following useful for ppp0 or dial up
connection):

# service iptables stop

# iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE

# service iptables save

# service iptables restart

Make sure Iptables runs on boot

# chkconfig iptables on

Open your Windows / Mac / Linux computer networking GUI tool


and point router IP to 192.168.0.1 (eth0 Linux IP). You also
need to setup DNS IP such as 8.8.8.8 or to your local DNS
server IP. You should now able to ping or browse the internet:
# ping google.com

Client Side Configuration

Now all you have to do is set the IP 192.168.0.1 as gateway on


all your client machines in your network. You can enter your
default gateway in the file /etc/sysconfig/network as:-
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
or you can also put the same entry in your interface specific file
at /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

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