Routing an AOL connection to a linux box

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NerdzRule7

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 3, 2002
Messages
244
alright guys, heres a problem for ya. i have AOL broadband. yes i know.. let the AOL bashing start, but my dad needs the dialup numbers that comes along with the high speed acess, and he pays for it, so i dont complain. anyways, my linux box really needs an internet connection. its a pain in the butt for me to download stuff on my main computer, then move it over to linux. i tried using my regular hardware router and everything, that didnt work. and i cant get aol to run in linux via WINE or WINEx. my question is this, how can i set up a gateway, running windows, that will run my AOL client software then send the net connection out via another nic to my linux box. i have no shortage of nic's or computers, so that shouldnt be a problem. i'm just not sure of how to do this, or if its even possible with the crap AOL software i gotta run to get the net connection active in the first place. i have tried the penggy software for linux but with no sucess, it seems to work for AOL DSL connections, but mine is a high speed cable connection on the Road Runner lines around my area... any help would be great. thanks again-the_nerd
 
You have RR cable modem right - what happens if you just plug in random PC without the AOL software installed to the cable modem?

Can you get an IP address?

[been trying to understand exactly what AOL offers on their "high speed access" since they don't provide the access or the lines....]
 
chances are that if you have AOL Broadband, you can get roadrunner or eastlink....ever ask your dad about switching?
 
i have tried just the modem without the software, but it will not give me internet acess. i have also tried to use the pppoe stuff on my linksys router to log me into AOL but aol must use a diff protocall, cuz that does nothing either. so, KoZLop, your saying that AOL doesnt allow ICS? is there any other way, like using the WinGate software i've heard about, that will let me share my AOL connection?-the_nerd
 
Hi there

Install a software proxy on the aol box (www.analogx.com has one that works for me - using it to write this!!) and set the linux box to use the proxy. It works fine for me on aol dial-up so should work fine on the aol broadband.

However, if anyone finds routing software that works with aol please, please, please post it as it's the only thing keeping locked into Windoze.

L
 
thanks Linuxtim. i'll be trying that tonight and hoping it works. you might wanna try penggy that should do the aol dialup for ya, but for my cable it didnt work. also, you can run aol 5.0 on wine, i have that running but i need aol 7.0 at least to run cable modems-the_nerd
 
ok i'm getting somewhere with that analogx proxy, i'm just not sure where. i set it up, then set my secondary gigabit card to an ip of 172.16.1.101. on the box i'm trying to route the connection to, i went into internet options in windows first (thought it might be easier doin this in windows before i tried it in linux) and configured the proxy to 172.16.1.101 port 5688 which is the port that the proxy sends all http requests. my second computer's ip is 172.16.1.102 which should work, they can ping eachtother, and when i open ie and try to get to google.com, i see it send out requests for google a bunch of times.. it says sometign like"opening page http://google.com.net" then it will try "opening page http://google.com.org" and it will cycle through a bunch of them, but after a few seconds i get the "this page cannot be displayed" and a box that says "internet explorer could not open the search page" i feel i'm close, but i'm not all that sure what to do from here.. any sugestions?thanks-The-nerd
 
From the Proxy readme:


HTTP (web browsers) (port 6588) - not 5688
HTTPS (secure web browsers) (port 6588)
SOCKS4 (TCP proxying) (port 1080)
SOCKS4a (TCP proxying w/ DNS lookups) (port 1080)
SOCKS5 (only partial support, no UDP) (port 1080)
NNTP (usenet newsgroups) (port 119)
POP3 (receiving email) (port 110)
SMTP (sending email) (port 25)
FTP (file transfers) (port 21)

If you have a firewall make sure the proxy has server rights.

That should be it - the proxy software should just work - works on my nt4 box and my 98 box with no additional configuration. I am using AOL 6 though - not AOL 7.

But it might be that you need to put AOL DNS servers into you linux eth0 config - a simple whois will give you a list of dns servers that AOL uses.

But if AOL 5 works in wine then I am giving that a try.

Pengy (sp?) - I tried that but I need to recompile my kernal and that was just "too" much effort to get it working. I'm only on dialup so it was not really that major a deal.

<edit> Sounds like the above issue is due to IE not having the lan connection set correctly - I'd check that again and maybe post a screen shot like if you need to so I can see your config.

L
 
if i have some time today i'll try again and post some screenshots. i have talked to my dad recently, and we are considering going to earthlink which also provides nationwide dialup numbers, but that might be months off, and i'd like a net connection on the server at the next lan.-The_nerd
 
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