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It's pretty easy and simple to build your
own BBIagent router. Firstly, you have to prepare a x86 computer acting
as a router. Create and download a boot image file for it with BBIagent
Setup Wizard. Write the file into a 1.44 MB floppy diskette or burn the bootable ISO image into a CDROM. Connect
the computer to your LAN. Finally, boot the computer with the diskette or CDROM
to be the router for your LAN.
To administrate the router, you have to download a Java-based application,
BBIagent Explorer.
It can be run on a computer with Java runtime environment. If you
would like to administrate it with a Java-enabled browser from any
computer on the LAN, upload the application into the router and BBIagent
Explorer can be launched from the link on the home page of the router.
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| 1. Hardware
Requirements |
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You have to prepare a computer acting as a router with following
configurations.
- 586 CPU or better
- 16 MB RAM or more
- Floppy or CDROM drive
- NIC (Network Interface Card) connecting to the LAN
Another NIC is required for broadband connection with a xDSL or
Cable modem. If you dial up with an analog modem, it has to be attached
to standard serial port on the mainboard.
Hardware requirements in detail for the computer can be found on
Hardware page.
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| 2. Creating
a Boot Diskette |
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Before creating a boot diskette, you have
to know the model of NIC in the computer and the connection protocol
for the WAN connection.
If the NIC is ISA or EISA interface, you may need to configure its
IRQ and I/O address with the jumpers on the card or its setup program
under DOS.
You have to create and download a boot image file with BBIagent Setup
Wizard, which will help you to create the file step by step based
on your hardware configurations, then write it into a formatted
floppy or burn the bootable ISO image into a CDROM. Boot your computer with it to be
a dedicate router.
More information on creating a boot diskette can be found on Download
page.
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| 3. Connecting
to Local Area Network |
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Connect the computer acting as a router to the LAN as shown in
the figure below. If you installed two NICs with same model or both
use the same driver under Linux, the first NIC detected (as eth0)
when it is booted up should be connected to the LAN. Usually, the
NIC for the LAN is connected to the uplink port of a hub or switch.
If you connect to your ISP through an xDSL or Cable modem, connect
the modem directly to the WAN NIC in the computer with its cable.
For PPP connection with an analog modem, attach it to the RS-232
serial port (COM 1 or 2) on the computer.

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| 4. Booting
BBIagent router |
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Power on the hub or switch and the modem first. Boot the computer
with the diskette you created. There are some messages displayed
if you have monitor connected to the computer while it's booting
up.
If there is no error message shown on the console, the last line
should be
Open http://192.168.2.1 for router administration
and the computer becomes the router for the LAN and is ready to
be connected from other computers on the LAN.
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| 5.
Configuring Networked Computers |
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Other computers on the LAN have to be
configured with TCP/IP support and in the same network segment of
the router in order to access the Internet. For example, the default
network settings for the router are as follows,
IP address : 192.168.2.1
Subnet mask : 255.255.255.0
All other computers connected to the router must be set to the same
IP subnet as the router. i.e. their network settings should be as
follows,
IP address : 192.168.2.X (where X is between 2 and 254)
Subnet mask : 255.255.255.0
Default gateway : 192.168.2.1 (the IP address of the router)
DNS server : 192.168.2.1 (the IP address of the router if the built-in
DNS proxy DNS is enabled, or the DNS provided by your ISP)
You can set the IP address for the computers either by automatically
obtaining an IP address from the built-in DHCP server if it is enabled
or by manual configuration.
If you enable the built-in DHCP server in the router, other computers
can be configured to obtain network settings from the router automatically.
The figure below is the setting under Windows NT. Otherwise, you have
to manually set up each computer with the above network information

You can check the network settings of the computers by running winipcfg.exe
under Windows 95/98/ME or ipconfig.exe under Windows NT/2000. If they
are correct, try to make sure that they can connect to the router
by executing following command,
ping 192.168.2.1
If the following messages appear:
Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
A network link between the computer and the router has been successfully
established.
If the message is "Request timed out", double check your
network settings, network cables and NIC configurations.
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| 6.
Launching BBIagent Explorer |
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To administrate the router, you have to
download BBIagent Explorer
(BBIagent.jar) and save it to your
local hard disk. After you are sure that the computer can connect
to the router, launch BBIagent Explorer with following command from
a computer supporting Java runtime environment,
java -jar BBIagent.jar -r 192.168.2.1
or under MS Windows,
javaw -jar BBIagent.jar -r 192.168.2.1
where 192.168.2.1 is the IP address of the router.
If you would like to launch it with a web browser from any computer
on the LAN, you have to upload BBIagent.jar into the router.
Open the
home page of the router with its IP address as URL (e.g. http://192.168.2.1),
input the path of BBIagent.jar in the local hard disk and click upload
button. If it is uploaded successfully, the
page will be updated and you are able to click the link on the
page to launch BBIagent Explorer with a web browser supporting Java
applet, plug-in or JNLP (Java Network Launching Protocol).
If you launch BBIagent Explorer as an applet or plug-in with a web
browser but only a gray screen appears after waiting for a moment,
you have to verify that the "HTTP Proxy" feature of your
web browser is disabled for the IP address of the router.
Type the default password BBIagent in the Password box and
then click Login button to start administration. Refer to User
Guide of BBIagent Explorer for the operations.
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