*BSD News Article 73853


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From: bmah@conviction.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Bruce A. Mah)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: NAT (was Re: IP Masquerading in user PPP?)
Date: 16 Jul 1996 03:46:51 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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Tim Iverson (iverson@cisco.com) wrote:

> Hmmm.  I think we have different definitions of "in the kernel".  I was
> thinking of a couple of hooks to an LKM; ie. the code would conceptually
> occupy the proper spot in the TCP/IP stack, but would not be part of the
> main kernel.  Most people don't need NAT for one, and (as you said) support
> for ugly new IP-embedded protocols would require a kernel rebuild.

Hmmm again.  I am not 100% sure how this would work, being woefully
ignorant of the mechanics of LKMs.  The aesthetics of this still gives
me creepy-crawlies, but there are other people in the FreeBSD world
much more qualified than me to express the problems concretely.

(After participating in a discussion of this issue, I've also come
to the conclusion there's some religion involved, too.)

> |(I also happen to fall into the "masquerading is evil" camp, but I
> |figure you probably don't want to hear that argument...)

> Oh, I agree in principle -- I don't like putting hacks into code for
> non-technological reasons.  In this case, my need for it is entirely due to
> the artificially created billing structure of my ISP.  IMHO, free versus
> $250/mo. is a pretty strong argument for NAT!

It sounds to me like this is a pretty strong argument for:

1.  SOCKS, which (as I understand things) puts everything up in userland.

2.  Switching ISPs in favor of someone (if they exist) who has a more
sensible billing structure.  :-)

Bruce.

--
Bruce A. Mah		   Graduate Student	          bmah@CS.Berkeley.EDU
		Tenet Group, Computer Science Division
		 University of California at Berkeley