> Can anyone recommend a simple, ideally free, stable &
> effective proxy server
> for this purpose.
> Needs to be able to run on the WIN98SE host.
> Something with extra features is not really required although if your
> favourite stable free solution has lots of extra bells and
> whistles then pse
> comment on them.

Hi,

There's a few solutions you could try - ICS does work OK, but it has little
configurability, and isn't really secure.  Also, if you can help it i
wouldn't recommend using Win98 for a router, it doesn't tend to be as stable
as WinNT/2K would be (although there would be less security patching..).  If
you do use ICS, make sure that you at least firewall the router pc (perhaps
something like Zone Alarm Pro, Tiny personal firewall, at the cheap end of
things).  ICS can have stability problems - usually a case of rebooting
every couple of weeks when it stops routing anything..

A good solution that i use for broadband and modem routing is Winroute
(www.winroute.com).  I use the Pro version, as it provides extra
configurability in terms of routing and security (some firewall
functionality) - and also other features, like http proxying and a mail
server.  However, it might be a bit on the pricy side for you.  Have never
had any reliability problems, however - has been running for weeks without
requiring any interference to keep it running.

One other option would be a linux-based firewall - such as smoothwall
(www.smoothwall.org).  Cheap (free..) and highly configurable, although it
may be a steeper learning curve.

There are other solutions out there - but it's best if you choose one that
does straight NAT routing rather than a SOCKS5 proxy or similar, just for
the sake of application compatibility (although it you're just using simple
things like web browsers, they would be fine).

Another thing to point out is that some work should be put into hardening
the router pc - having an on-demand regularly updated virus scanner would be
a must, as would a firewall (and while NAT routing provides some degree of
protection, it certainly isn't 100% secure - you might want to consider
firewalling your internal pc's also.  just depends on what data you've got
on them).  More importantly, look at the way the PC is configured - if
you're running Win9x you can ensure that personal web server is not running,
remove file and print sharing.  On NT/2K, ensure that the OS fully patched,
that IIS and index server isn't running, that all other unnecessary services
are disabled, etc.

You can get a fair amount of information on router setup and security
online - www.securityfocus.com provides various articles, with the
security-basics list being a good place to start.

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