Home network stuff

[jbdurden31]

ok, I have 4 computers in my house. I just got cable internet installed and I want all 4 computers to share the connection. I want one of the computers to be setup as the server (with 2 nic cards). I own a linksys switch. What is the best way to configure the whole house?

P.S. the server is running windows xp, another comp is running windows 2000, and the other 2 are running windows 98 2nd edition.

Thanks,
James Boukedes

[YeOldeStonecat]

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/

[Steelboss]

The first thing I would do is load W2K on all 4 machines. ;)

[YeOldeStonecat]

XP will serve fine to 9X clients.

[jbdurden31]

ok so I plugged all teh computers into the switch. Where do I plug the server into? the uplink port? also how do I assign each computer a specific ip address?

thx
james boukdes

[YeOldeStonecat]

Servers WAN NIC plugs into your broadband modem.

Servers LAN NIC plugs into normal port of your hub or your switch, as do your other LAN nodes.

The link above gives you step by step (with graphics) on setting up your LAN workstations, better than I can describe here.

[Casper]

Why do you want a server? You could just plug all the comps into the switch and run it that way. Setup time, 5 minutes.

[JeffL]

Originally posted by Casper
Why do you want a server? You could just plug all the comps into the switch and run it that way. Setup time, 5 minutes.

uhm, you pay extra for additional IP's in most cases, and some ISPs will only connect 1 system if only 1 IP is available.

Also, with all 4 systems having a public net IP, all network data including file/printer shares are 100% exposed to the internet, no matter what firewall you use (unless you have a hardware firewall between the modem and the switch or setup ICS (but then 1 system is still exposed!)).

[reader]

I gotta go with Casper...but I would just put a router on it and hide behind the NAT firewall.

I don't want to have to fire up one computer to run any of the other 3. If you have network printers, or a printerserver, you can hang 'em off the switch.