Setting up a simple network - help!

[IdahoB]

I'm setting up a small home network with a few friends, and a little guidance in advance would really help me with this. All of us are running Windows XP Professional.

There are 5 computers, and one USB cable modem. We want to configure one machine (an old beast of a P2) just as an Internet Server and also shared file server (for music, DivX films, vile pornography, etc ). A few Xboxes may end up sharing over the same hub (don't know if it's possible, don't really care - it's just an afterthought).

This server will feed into a hub/switch of some kind and all the others log into it.

All the stuff about setting up DHCP, what software is a bit above me - and some help on where to start or somewhere on the net that would help would be fantastic.

Thanks!

 

[sohcrates]

practicallynetworked.com is a great resource to start with

basically, for your setup, you would need a switch.

you could run ICS (internet connection sharing) off your internet server and run a network card out of that machine and into the switch.

from the switch, everyone else would plug in

then, ICS would handle all the DHCP , etc.

so basically, the "internet server" machine would need the USB cable modem hooked up as well as a network adapter installed.

plug the NIC into the switch, plug everyone else into the switch, and then follow the ICS guides for winxp on practicallynetworked.com

you could do this with a hub too, but a switch would provide much better performance...you can find some crelatively cheap 5-port switches all over

 

[osage]

Good place to start is here

 

[nihil]

ack....usb modems.