[WEB4LIB] IP addresses & firewalls

[Richard L. Goerwitz III]

Patricia Fortin wrote:
> 
> Hi All ... Our i.t. dept. manages the systems for 2 institutions and they
> have allocated 1 IP address for both institutions to access the internet
> through the same firewall, with the default being the other institution.
> They are telling us that for "security reasons" only one IP address is known
> on the internet.

You could do it the hard way and install a proxy server on your old IP
range and route all access from the new IP address you've been allocated
through there. If your firewall doesn't allow use of alternate proxy
servers, then you could use a reverse proxy like EZProxy (or what we use
here at Brown University, Libproxy).

I don't understand why your IT department feels the need, though, to
route you through a single IP address.  Single firewall maybe.  But
the firewall can presumably be configured to respond to an additional
IP address (one in your old range).

Easiest might be just to call up all your vendors and tell them they
need to add another new IP address to the ranges already assigned to you
and give them the IP address that's been assigned to you for accessing
the Internet as that new address.

How many vendors would you have to call?

-- 

Richard Goerwitz                               richard at Goerwitz.COM
tel: 401 438 8978