Firewall configuration questions.

["John Morey" <jmorey () mmintl com>]

1) Is  possible, using Linux, to setup a firewall such that it has public IP addresses on both
sides.  I thought I read something about this some time back but I can not find it now.  If I 
remember correctly the trick had to do with putting both network interfaces on the same network
but giving the external interface a network mask of 255.255.255.252 and the internal interface
a network mask of 255.255.255.0.

2) If the above is possible, is it advisable?  What are the up and downs as apposed to doing it
the "normal" way where the internal machines have private IP addresses?

Thanks for any help or info,

John Morey
jmorey () mmintl com