Linux/Win98 network?

[fourtwenty]

Hi, I am very new to this whole network thing but I am planning on building a second computer and wanted to network it to my present computer. I also want to run Linux on this computer (never used it before but curious to see what all the fuss is about) so my question is, can you network a PC w/Win98 and PC w/Linux? If so is there anything special I should do?

I am also not too sure on how to network these 2 together, I am on highspeed phone line connection (currently beeting the pants off the cable guys up here), and want to share it between the 2 computers. Is there a way to connect them from PC to PC (like a daisy chain) or is getting a small hub the answer?

Thanks for your help.

 

[BCYL]

Yes, you can network Windows system with Linux system. However if you want to share files between the two, you will need to run Samba on the Linux machine... Other than that, the settings (IP, submask, etc) should be the same as if you are networking 2 Windows machine.

You can connect the 2 PCs directly using a crossover cable, or you can connect them both to a hub using patch cables (normal CAT5)... Both would work...

 

[fourtwenty]

What would I need for network gear if I went with the hub? I'm not sure how this all works, would my internet connection (RJ45) go into the hub and then out to each computer or what?

 

[BCYL]

So you are trying to share the internet connection? You need 1 PC to be the server, running NAT software (linux has this feature built-in). That server should have 2 NICs in it. So your network will look like this:

modem -> server PC NIC 1
server PC NIC 2 -> hub -> rest of network

However, if you have enough IPs for each of your PCs (ex. ISP gives you 2 IPs and you have 2 PCs), you can just plug the modem into the hub, and the other PCs into the hub. This way no server PC is needed cuz every PC gets their own IP address. And no NAT software needs to be run...

 

[fourtwenty]

Kewl, thanks.

 

[fourtwenty]

My next question would be which computer to use as the server? I have a Cel566@850 on Asus P3V4X and will be building a second computer w/Duron 600 and Asus A7V. I also have a Voodoo 3 2000 & 8M hercules Terminator Beast vid cards, 2x128M, 2x64M, 4X32M Ram, HP9110i CDRW, and Soundblaster live value sound plus 4 hard drives (2x7200RPM, 2X5400RPM). Any suggestions on how I should do this?