OS X Lion Server set up internet sharing ethernet-ethernet

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Level 1

18 points

OS X Lion Server set up internet sharing ethernet-ethernet

Hello folks,

I'm trying to set-up a Lion Server machine (a 2011 mac mini) as the primary machine on the network, meaning in front of the Airport router. I'm looking to do this because i have a ultra high speed network (1Gb/sec) and i found that ALL Apple routers in production to present date have low throughput (sadly) and can't cope with speeds over 30 MB/s (aprox 250Mb/s sec). So having a server behind such a router would cap right from the start my Gb connection to a quarter of the theoretical max.

So i'm looking to do have this scheme:

Internet ----> Server ----> Airport Extreme for wifi ----> Clients

The Mac Mini would use the built in ethernet for the internet connection and that would be shared (i presume) via the Thunderbolt Display's built-in ethernet. The display would be connected to the router (AE) and the AE would act presumably as a bridge and only propagate wifi. So that means the server would have to provide both DHCP and NAT.

Btw, speaking of those 2 services, where are they in Lion Server and how to configure them?

So ultimately the question comes down to how to share the internet connection, and the tipology of the network ie:

Built in Mac Mini ethernet config:

Public IP X.X.X.X

Mask provided by ISP

Router provided by ISP

DNS (ISP or my own).

Above connection would have to be shared via TD ethernet which should look like this:

IP 10.0.1.1

mask 255.255.255.0

Router ?!?! i assume it should be the same 10.0.1.1 (itself)?

DNS same as above

Then the Airport should get configured in Bridge?

Then there's a matter of configuring the server to act on the Public IP (it's own ethernet connection).

Advice pls?

many thanks in advance,

Andrei

Posted on Jul 9, 2012 5:54 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 9, 2012 6:41 AM in response to IamNehalem

Taking what you say at face value, unless you get more than 250 mb/sec downstream from your ISP, what you're doing is pointless.

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Answer 2

IamNehalem Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 9, 2012 6:45 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you for your input but i get even 500-600Mb/s from ISP. 1000 is theoretical max!

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 9, 2012 7:09 AM in response to IamNehalem

I've experimented with Internet Sharing, and it's not dependable enough for your needs. I got better results configuring bootpd, natd, and ipfw manually, but that's very difficult. Needless to say, you won't get that kind of throughput in a Wi-Fi network, no matter what you do. You need a fast enterprise-class gateway and Gigabit Ethernet.

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Answer 4

IamNehalem Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 9, 2012 7:46 AM in response to Linc Davis

Can you please provide some examples of such gateways that can carry this thoughput?

On the same sidenote: I tried to use a different Router at my office and replace the AE from Apple with an Asus rt-n56u that that been tested to provide massive throughput (one if not the fastest routers out there) but it's a mainstream products not a high end enterprise one. Moreover i would approach the same way for home if not for countless problems i encountered with this router (eg: router will not forward VPN properly).

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 9, 2012 7:55 AM in response to IamNehalem

I don't have a specific recommendation. As a starting point, see here:

pfSense Open Source Firewall Distribution - Recommended Hardware Vendors

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Answer 6

IamNehalem Author

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18 points

Jul 9, 2012 8:23 AM in response to Linc Davis

PS: I'm not interested in Wifi performance and nor about the clients throuput to the net. All i care is one computer to have unrestricted access (speed wise) to the net and vice versa and that's the server.

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 9, 2012 11:17 AM in response to IamNehalem

Add the NAT, DHCP, and Firewall services in Server Admin.

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Answer 8

IamNehalem Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 10, 2012 5:12 AM in response to Linc Davis

Will try this asap. However pls tell me if i got it right with the settings for the 2 ethernet connections and the way to share the public one over the local one.

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Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 10, 2012 6:01 AM in response to IamNehalem

It's right as far as it goes, but you also need to set up the router in bridge mode, so you're not behind double NAT, and you need to configure the firewall. You should also expect to have problems with the configuration of other services, which are not designed to function on a combination server-gateway-workstation. I strongly advise against this plan. If you proceed with it anyway, I can't be of any further help.

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