Who needs approval?
Though not necessarily physically required, getting your network
administrator's permission to setup a SLIP server is a very good idea.
Assuming you know something about networking, have the required hardware and
software, and can follow instructions, you shouldn't need any help from the
network administrator...which is good, since they're usually pretty busy
people. However, setting up a SLIP server:
- opens your local network to the outside world
- requires an additional IP address
Your network administrator may or may not care about the security
implications of a SLIP server, but (s)he will care very much if you steal an
IP address that you thought was "available", but really wasn't. Using an
address already assigned to another system, or a "free" address that eventually
gets assigned to a system, will cause you and the address's
real owner alot of trouble. At seemingly random times, connectivity for either
party may be interrupted. When this happens, the real owner of the
address will undoubtedly complain, and the network admin should have little
difficulty in tracing the problem to your rogue SLIP server. This is not a
great way to win friends...but a very good way to get your ethernet cut off.