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Re: Wish to network my home computers but don't know Jack about it



On Fri, Dec 19, 2003 at 11:29:27AM -0600, 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.
> 
> Any advice, recommendations, pointers, flames, etc. will be greatly
> appreciated.
> Thanks.
> 
> Rusty Smith
> AKA (in non-Linux fora)
> Cybe R. Wizard
> 
> 
Hi Rusty,
you will need a few basic hardward parts to get going.
every computer need an ethernet network interface card (NIC) and a cat5 network
(ethernet) cable. To put this all together into a local area network
(LAN) you need a network switch or hub. basically you setup the network
cards (hardware) and cables, setup the network interfaces on each computer (software) 
and then plug them into the switch. At this point, each computer can reach/connect to each
other. This will be a simple ethernet star network.

The dashes represent 4 port ethernet switch.

computer 1-+
computer 2-+
computer 3-+
computer 4-+

At this point #1 can connect to #2,#3,#4
#2 can connect to #1,#3,#4
#3 can connect to #1,#2,#4
#4 can connect to #1,#2,#3

BUT this does not enable ALL things.
it would connect ftp services, web services, telnet services.
To get printing requires samba on the linux servers.
For the linux server to access the windows hard drives requires samba.
Samba is a windows network protocol for file and print sharing.

if you want to share you internet connection, you will need to either
configure a linux box as a router OR buy a cheap linksys switch/router.
Then configure the router (linux or linksys) to forward internet packets
to the other computers. That will be for later. Getting the switch, nic
and cables is the first job. And can be gotten at any radioshack.
-Kev

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