How a Linux IP Masquerade Server Works.
174 million people use the Internet in America, states a July 12, 2001 article entitled Online Advertising: It's Just the Beginning of Business Week; and with the growing ease and necessity of getting computers, most households are not limited to just one. But what to do when you have only have one phone line or connection to your Internet Service Provider? When using multiple computers on the Internet, having a Linux IP Masquerading Server can be useful. After building and using a Linux IP Masquerading Server for some time now, I wish to tell you how it works, and the benefits of having one.
First, let's look at the basics of how a Linux IP Masquerading Server works. Linux itself is an Operating System built around networking and the Internet, created by Linus Torvalds and posted as Open Source in 1991, meaning anyone could have or modify it. Open Source is widely available on many sites around the World Wide Web. A Business Week article by Sam Jaffe named HP-Compaq's Great Software Challenge observes that even bigger name companies like HP and IBM are adopting Linux as their main Server Operating System. What a Linux Masquerade Server does is it uses a simple computer running Linux to allow multiple computers on a network to connect to the Internet through a single Internet connection.
We must first start at the basics of the Internet before discussing how it does this. The Internet Protocol, known as IP, works as an addressing system on networks by using IP numbers. IP numbers are assigned in ranges for companies to use for their networks, with each computer assigned it's own Real IP address. IP numbers are twelve numbers long, separated every third by a decimal. Computers communicate over the network by sending information to individual IP addresses, and if needed, a server acts as a link to a router or other networks. This server is called a gateway, and compares IP addresses to route information that needs to go outside of the network out, and let information that needs in, in.
