Cybe R. Wizard wrote:
. I am finally getting around to networking my family boxen (Christmas present to myself) but haven't a clue about networking anything. I am here asking for the most out-of-box networking solution for a home situation. I am not as interested in speed as compatibility with the existing spread of OSs which include Libranet Linux upgraded to Sid (my box, of course), Win95, Win95 laptop, Win98 laptop, WinME, WinXP laptop,and an old 486 with Win3.11 which may not get networked at all.Except for the 486 all boxen are Pentium 90 or better. Except for the WinXP and Win98 boxen all the rest will be going Debian(well, Libranet's version) as soon as some data can be swapped around. From a strictly workman's point of view, I would much prefer wireless if the old OSs or hardware can be made to support it.
Each computer will need some sort of NIC (Network Interface Card, although I understand that IBM used to call it a Network Access Card, so perhaps NIC/NAC is more accurate :-) ). Most newer PCs have the NIC circuitry built into the motherboard nowadays, with an RJ-45 standard ethernet port on the back.
The NIC can be either a wired nic, or a wireless nic. As a general rule, the wired nics are _much_ less expensive (I've seen them as cheap as $4 new in Fry's, to more than $100); generally, the $14-$20 variety is quite adequate for a situation like yours. For the desktop, you just get a PCI (or ISA, if your computer only has ISA slots, in which case you may have to mess with jumpers or driver configuration programs) and plug it in. A wireless NIC is typically a PCMCIA wireless card for what you'd put into a laptop (or perhaps a CompactFlash device, etc), and if you wanted to use it in a non-laptop, you'd have to get a PCI adapter for it as well. These combos usually will cost in the neighborhood of $20-$35 for the PCI adapter plus $60-$90 for the PCCard NIC, for a total of $80-$125. As you can see, the wired NIC is less expensive. (But shop around; I haven't in several months and perhaps things have changed.)
I count 3 laptops in your list above, so you'll need 3 wireless cards that work in your laptop/OS (good luck on older machines/OSes! - perhaps the XP laptop is new enough to have wireless built-in, but probably not). For the other machines, you'll either have to get wireless cards that work with them, or get wired NICs and run some Category 5 (CAT5) cable, which is pretty much the only stuff you'll find in the networking section of most computer stores.
To tie them all together, you'll need a switch/router. I count 7 boxes, so you'll need one that either has 8 ports, or you'll need one with four ports and the capability to support wireless for another four. (You need to leave one wired port free for your future broadband connection; you _will_ someday move to it; it's just too sweet compared to dial-up not to.) Or you can daisy-change smaller switches/routers (aka "hubs" in my vernacular, although not strictly accurate). If it were me, I'd definitely get one with wireless capability. The four-port versions with wireless run somewhere in the $60-$120 range; the non-wireless units about $10 or $20 less. Netgear, SMC, LinkSYS, should all be fine, and are common in the stores. I'd personally stay away from Microsoft units, but that's philosophical on my part; I don't want to send _any_ money their way if I can avoid it. You want it to have DHCP server capabilities, and probably a firewall (although not really necessary as long as you're not connecting to the outside world through it, and you could use your old 486 or some other computer as a firewall, but that's an extra step - getting it built into the switch/router is easier, albeit less flexible/adaptable/upgradeable).
So basically you set up the switch/router in a central (electrically, at least, if not geographically) location, and then string the cables from it to the various computers.
That takes care of the physical wiring stuff.Then each computer has to have the NIC driver installed/configured, and the networking software has to be installed/configured. It's fairly easy (once you've done it a time or two) on both Linux and newer versions of Windows; Win95 is likely to be tough, and 98 might be as well.. You can configure the network software on each machine to use either a static IP ("network") address or a dynamic address (aka "dhcp"). If you use dhcp, the router/switch will assign each computer an address, making sure that one computer doesn't conflict with another. The disadvantage is that the address _might_ change from boot to boot, which could possibly affect some of your network operations (because you've been copying your files from this computer to that computer at address a.b.c.d, but today that computer's address is no longer a.b.c.d but rather a.b.c.f). If you use static addressing, you, the "network administrator", must make sure that each machine gets a unique and valid IP address. I suspect that as a newbie to networking you'll find it easier to use dhcp; you can always switch later, and you can have a mix of the two on your network.
Setting up the wireless machines is done pretty much the same way as setting up the wired machines, although there may be a bit more work depending on how your router/switch is configured to handle wireless.
And of course, you don't have to get them all working at once. You can focus today's efforts on the wired clients, and figure out wireless next week. Or vice-versa.
As far as outside connections: you can have one computer be the dial-up "master", and the other machines can share network access through that box (in which case, that box needs to be/have a firewall instead of or in addition to the firewall in the switch/router - a firewall is not "necessary"; it's just a good idea to keep the bad guys out). Or if you get a broadband connection (DSL, Cable, etc), get a broadband modem that has an ethernet output instead of a USB output; then just plug the ethernet into the 8th port on your switch/router (and reboot the switch/router if necessary), and boom, all your computers can have fast internet access, without changing anything else. Very easy.
Any questions, feel free to ask.If you have two machines that already have a NIC, you can string them together with a "rolled" cable, which is a special CAT5 ethernet cable for bypassing hubs while connecting two and only two computers together. Some newer network cards have the "rolling" capability built-in, and automatic, so you can use just a normal CAT5 cable. This way you can connect two machines and get a "feel" for what it takes to network the computers together without spending more than $15 or so up-front for the rolled cable. There's another common name for a rolled cable, but the name escapes me at the moment.
-- Kent