Can anyone Help me with a Home Network....

[Cybers]

OK I am new to Networking, I have 3 systems that I want to network together.......
I already instaled 10/100 USB Nics on 2 of thim & the other system is a laptop...I instaled a 10/100 + 56k PCMCIA card on it...
I have 1 5-port linksys switch
1 5-port Linksys Hub
1 8-port Switch
& the Cat5 cable is ran to the systems.....
Whats next....

 

[konichiwa]

Well, since you don't have one of the Linksys' with built-in NAT, the best thing to do is probably just connect them all to the 5port switch and use one of them as the "server" computer and install some sort of NAT software on it (Windows98se/2k/me/xp ICS, Sygate, etc).

 

[theblooms]

Best thing to do is do what I did. Go to ebay and get a dirt cheap old 486 or Pentium. I got a 486/66 for $10 + $20 shipping. Just make sure it has 2 PCI slots. Then get two NIC's (3com 3C905's are the easiest to work with) again you are talking $15 or less for both off of ebay. Go to http://www.bbiagent.net/en/index.html
and use their Linux router freeware. You have now invested less than $50 and you have an absolutely secure and very fast and firewalled router. It runs entirely off of the floppy drive, so you can strip the box to the bare minimum, even pulling out the hard drive and fans, plus you can configure it from your main PC if you need to tweak it.
Michael

 

[JackMDS]

LOL, when someone has difficulties putting together two NIC and a Hub, he is told to build Linux Box.


The joy of Windows Networking