How to configure Linux as router for sharing internet in RHEL?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Issue

  • How to share internet in Linux?
  • Local system must route the traffic to router server to access the internet.

Resolution

  • Refer following steps to configure Linux system as router and share internet :

    • Assign static ip address's to eth0 and eth1 interfaces.

    • Enable ip forwarding using following command :

      • Enable ip forwarding
      # echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
      • To make this change persistent across reboot, add the following line in "/etc/sysctl.conf"
    net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
    • Add iptables to share internet from eth1 interface.
    # iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
    • Save and restart iptables.
    # service iptables save
# service iptables restart

    • Set ip of eth0 interface as gateway in all our local systems .

    • Make sure the dns is proper.

    • Now we are all set to share internet connection from Linux system.

  • Another best thing to share internet is using squid proxy. With squid server its easy to share the internet as well as restrict/allow usres/ip using squid server. Squid proxy has lot of useful feature .

Refer : How to configure squid in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Root Cause

  • IP forwarding allows functionality to configure system as router.
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