IP Address RoutingIntroductionThe Windows operating system offers us a marvelously effective technique of filtering unwanted connections through the use of the hosts file. Before Windows attempts to access a remote computer by name to address lookup it checks the hosts file to see if the name has been defined to an address in hosts. Through use of hosts technology we can predefine the names of computers we don't wish to contact by giving the name another address. Typically the address used is a local machine address 127.0.0.1 (AKA localhost). In cases where a direct address connection is being attempted the hosts file is logically not checked for a name to address resolution. The hosts file and all DNS processes are bypassed because a name to address resolution is unnecessary. DNSKong is a software program brilliantly conceived and written by Pyrenean and serves as a pseudo-localhost server resolving unwanted DNS queries to 127.0.0.1. DNSKong has many advanced features not available in the hosts file. eDexter is an other program by Pyrenean that speeds up web surfing for hosts and DNSKong users and also cleans up web page display by replacing the empty image boxes with a graphic of your choice. In this tutorial you will learn how to re-route direct IP connections using existing Windows software and technology. I wish to extend special thanks to Pyrenean for teaching me this simple yet powerful technique. Pyrenean is developing new software called IronCARP and the technology taught on these pages will be part of the technology incorporated by IronCARP. Pyrenean says that routing is part of a solution as implemented by IronCARP. Routing is a discovery method and is only part of the solution. Some may find routing is all they need, this especially applies to those operating behind a NAT router. Others operating in a corporate net will find their route entries are reset every 15 minutes or so. IronCARP solves that problem. Well, I guess we will all be looking forward to the first public release of IronCARP. In the meantime we can use the technique outlined in this tutorial if it works on our computer. Prior to publishing these pages I tested re-routing IP addresses on Windows 95 and Windows 98 computers including stand alone installations and local area network environments. My testing included cable and dial-up Internet connection and the results of my testing have shown these environments hold the routing table once set holds for days on end. This is very good news for home computer users. Please regard this tutorial as a beta tutorial. I first published this material on February 10, 2000. To my knowledge it is a one of its kind tutorial. I've performed many hours of research and testing on this project prior to publication. I don't anticipate that you will have any problems but you may wish to wait until others have tested this technique and I've received feedback before you implement this technology. I expect to learn more and will refine these pages as needed. Notice to Windows 2000 / NT users: the screen shots and step by step instructions in this tutorial are for Windows 9x. Windows 2000 / NT users will discover a significantly different configuration and I don't recommend this tutorial to you except for learning principles. I hope to do some testing on Windows 2000 in order to offer similar support. If you would like to do testing on these operating systems I'd appreciate any feedback regarding configuration, success or failures. Click here to view the notes I've received from W2K and NT users. These notes might be useful if you're inclined to experiment with W2K or NT. By the way, I hope to have completed testing and created a tutorial for W2K by March 1, 2000 proceed to the Next Chapter |