On Sat, 30 Oct 1999, Rlongo wrote:
> information on how to setup an ISP. I have been reading all the How-Tos
> that came with my distro but I'm getting really frustrated at how they all
> say goto this How-To or this How-to while your in the middle of reading one
> How-To. Is there any site or really good book out there that can help me
> out. Any Ideas?
Well an ISP is a fairly costly and complex thing to setup. What did you
intend on using Linux-Mandrake for (mail, web or everything?). If you
intend on using Linux for your core components (ie. you have a few cisco
routers for internet access and some terminal servers (like a PM3)), then
you should probably look at having a single NFS server with some kind of
software or hardware RAID (depending on your budget), a radius server,
mail server, web and ftp server (scalable depending on your immediate
needs). You may also want to look at a proxy server (use Squid).
If you plan on using Linux for everything (if you plan on being a
succesful mid-sized ISP I'd recommend you get yourself some Lucent PM3s
and a Cisco 7508 and probably a cisco catalyst 2900 (min)). If you have
money to burn look at www.alteon.com or www.foundry.net and try deploying
a multiple-server multi-purpose load balanced environment, such that each
server may run web, ftp and mail and be load balanced in case one server
falls.
To go back to basics :) The minimum you will need is a web server, ftp
server, mail server, radius server and a box to provide network monitoring
features (ie. monitor you routers, terminal servers and linux boxes and
page/email/notify the administrator if one breaks) :)
You should also be aware that while you can get WAN interface cards that
will work under Linux a lot of the major backbone providers (such as
UUnet/Alternet) require you to have a cisco router, I think for a T3 they
require a 7000 series router (if i remember right) :)
Hope that helps.
oh if you are looking for a good set of books, look at O'Reilly, probably
Linux administrator, Linux Network Administrator, NFS and NIS, Sendmail,
Learning Perl and learn how to use ipchains :) You may also want to look
at securityfocus.org on a regular basis. You should also be pretty familar
with IP, especially TCP/UDP, maybe Cisco IOS would be a good thing to
learn :), and maybe you should look at some of the books from Cisco press,
there is a good one of Advanced Network Design (IP) if you are planning on
building a large ISP (now or in the future), it will help you design a
fairly decent scalable network.
Regards
John I.Buswell
Development Engineer
MandrakeSoft
