Homenetworking help please!

[nitsuj3580]

Ok, I'm not great at networking so I was wondering if someone could help me out.

I'm getting a cable modem this weekend and want to network the house. I have three computer...two running on Win2k Pro, and the other on Win98. One of the Win2k machines will be the "server". the cable modem will go into the server on one NIC, and then from another NIC on the machine, will go the hub, the other two computers will then be networked to the hub. What do I do after this. I want to be able to share printers/files and make sure every computer has internet access. thanks a lot.

 

[nitsuj3580]

please help

 

[Garion]

Sounds like your standard Windows file sharing will do just fine. You could run something like Sygate or WinRoute on your "Server" with two NIC's and let the other machines share the Internet connection.

It would be easier to install a hardware router like the SMC Barricade in place of routing through a server. They are cheap, easy and more secure than a software router on one PC.

- G

 

[huyvu]

If I were you, go over to computers4sure.com and pick up a SMC Barricade 4-port switch router (includes print server). Let the SMC router handle the security and network sharing. I think it's only $49 after a $50 rebate. I also recommend the Netgear RT314 (but I don't know if it's on sale). Then head over to the HW router forums at DSLreports.com - plenty of DSL and cable people to help.

Until then, just hook up one of the PCs for the cable installer. Their experience varies, and if you get a new guy, having a network will scare him. Hook up everything after he leaves.

If you're not going to get the SMC router then you'll need to lock down your server - do NOT keep your files there. This server will be your proxy server. The server will have 2 IP addresses - a public one on the NIC connected to the modem and a private one on the internal nic - let's make it 192.168.1.1. Your other two PCs will have 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3 respectively. Their subnet masks are 255.255.255.0 and gateway is 192.168.1.1. You'll need to configure the NAT service on your server (never done it, so can't help you there). Your DNS servers are whatever your server's external NIC is assigned dynamically. You can now share between all 3 PCs, except you really want to disable file sharing on the server to make it more secure - locking down the server is key. There are a lot things you can do, be I just gave you the most basic.

Trust me, getting the SMC (or any other router) is best.

 

[huyvu]

sorry garion, didn't see your post while I was typing out the bible ...