On 05/06/2012 06:57 PM, imnotpc wrote:

My thanks to you, Maarten, and Doug for replying. I knew that packets in private subnets are never forwarded by routers, one of the basic security features of the IPV4 system. I had never heard them referred to as martian before, but the name makes sense. Based on the destination of the packets (Google, Facebook), my assumption is that these are not malicious, and based on my knowledge of my network, I believe these are originating from the wireless hosts as Doug indicated. I guess the only part I still don't understand is how these packets are reaching the kernel of the gateway through NAT and firewalls? Perhaps there is something I don't understand about how IP traffic moves between hosts.

The basic idea of a gateway is that you have two NICs, one (say eth1) connected to the same switch to which all your other wired hosts are connected, and using an IP address of something internal, say 192.168.1.1. The other NIC (say eth0) is connected to your external internet. Your routing table should indicate that any traffic for a 192.168.1.x address should go out eth1, and any traffic for something other than 192,168.1.x should go out eth0. And you have NAT enabled for anything going out eth0 so that your internal addresses get translated to the external IP address assigned by your ISP as they pass through the gateway.

This assumes that you're using a PC as a gateway. Your router should play no part with the wired connections --- it and all the other wired hosts should be plugged into the switch, i. e. you shouldn't be using the inbound wired jacks on the router at all. The wireless goes into the router, but beyond that plays on an equal level with the wired guys all going into the gateway PC.

The problem you describe most likely results from trying to use the router as the gateway in conjunction with the switch. You've got the wired guys coming through the switch and participating in NAT and the wireless guys coming into the router directly, and somehow bypassing NAT.

You mention the "gateway kernel", so I'm guessing that you are using a gateway PC rather than a gateway router. If you are using a 192.168.3.x subnet, then your gateway is NAT'ing some hosts and not others.

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