Networking

[mcmi0037@tc.umn.edu]

I have a question about networking.. here's the situation:

I have 2 Debian boxes with Ethernet cards, & respective cabling. I have an
on-campus Ethernet connection, with 1 static IP & 1 etherjack allocated to me.
Currently, I have the two PC's both online and configured to use the static
IP, 160.94.138.145. I read the Net-3 & IP-Masq Howtos, and I am pretty sure I
can configure one of the boxes as a firewall if I must.

Currently, I have only one box connected to the internet at a time, and I have
to ifconfig eth0 down on one box, plug the RJ-45 into the other box, and
ifconfig up on the other one. I'd like to be able to have both online at once,
though. (Especially since the main thing I want to do with one of them is play
around with remote X apps.) 

The question I have, which I don't think I could glean form the Howtos, is,
what other hardware do I need?

If I get an Ethernet hub with, say, 8 ports, can I connect one port to the
jack on the wall, and two more of the ports to the NIC's on my boxes? Or do I
need a third NIC on one of the computers that will be connected directly to
the hub?

I guess my real question is, can I do a connect like this:

 inet ----> hub ---> box1
             |
             +-----> box2 

or do i need to do this:

 inet ---> box1 ---> hub ---> box2

And, if I do that second setup, won't I need two NIC's on box1, one ingoing &
one outgoing?

Colin McMillen