Hi, I am have just got broadband installed and have it working on my Linux box. Now I wanrt to set up a network with the other computers in my house - 2 pc's and a mac.
I have a cable modem connected via ethernet card. My plan is to use a second ethernet card in my pc to connect it to a hub, and then connect the other pcs to this hub.
Since most stuff in docs that i have found is quite specific and has a lot of jargon, I'm struggling to find sccesible info on how to configure this network. If you have any advice or know of a suitable tutorial please let me know.
A simple description of the steps:
1. Install the second Ethernet card in your Linux box and make sure it is properly recognized.
2. Assign a private-network address to this Ethernet card and to all your other computers (something like 192.168.0.1 for the gateway computer, then .2 and .3 for the others). In my example you would use a netmask of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway of 192.168.0.1 (your Linux computer) for all of them. I suggest you assign addresses manually at first; leave DHCP for later. In the same vein, set up all computers to use your ISP's DNS servers; setting up your own is not necessary.
3. Make sure all computers on the local network can see and talk to each other.
4. Set up the iptables facility (the firewall) on your Linux computer to protect itself and the external network from outside attacks, and also to allow *masquerading* which is how a Linux computer allows many others in its internal network to have access to the outside. You can use something like fwbuilder for this, or Shorewall, or other tools which will help you configure the firewall.
Lots of help on each of these steps can be found on the Internet. As you go through them, you can post specific questions here on the list and we'll help you through it. I am also working on a "Small Netserver HOWTO" which will show exactly how to do all this... unfortunately I have made progress very slowly and it is not ready... hopefully it will be soon. I will be putting in some time on this subject during Holy Week, and you can reach whatever content I have at the moment from here:
http://www.simpaticus.com/linux
Sorry there's not more info there yet... as I said, it has taken me a long time to make progress and I'll try to improve it soon.
Cheers,
-- Rodolfo J. Paiz rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.simpaticus.com
