3.3. Enabling Packet Forwarding

By default the FreeBSD system will not forward IP packets between various network interfaces. In other words, routing functions (also known as gateway functions) are disabled.

If your intent is to use a FreeBSD system as stand-alone Internet workstation and not as a gateway between LAN nodes and your ISP you should skip forward to Section 3.4, "Creating the List of Other LAN Hosts".

If you intend for the PPP program to service the local FreeBSD box as well as LAN workstations (as a router) you'll need to enable IP forwarding.

To enable IP Packet forwarding you'll need to edit the /etc/sysconfig file. Load this file into your editor with the following command:

# ee /etc/sysconfig

About 250 lines down from the top of the file will be the configuration section which controls IP forwarding, which will look like:

=====
# If you want this host to be a gateway, set to YES.
gateway=NO
=====

Change this line to read:

=====
# If you want this host to be a gateway, set to YES.
gateway=YES
=====

and exit the editor (saving the changes!).

*** NOTE: This line may already be set to 'gateway=YES' if IP forwarding was enabled when the FreeBSD system was installed.