Re: Wish to network my home computers but don't know Jack about it

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Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 16:50:15 -0600
To: debian-user <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

Cybe R. Wizard wrote:

>.
>I am finally getting around to networking my family boxen (Christmas
>present to myself) but haven't a clue about networking anything. I am
>here asking for the most out-of-box networking solution for a home
>situation. I am not as interested in speed as compatibility with the
>existing spread of OSs which include Libranet Linux upgraded to Sid (my
>box, of course), Win95, Win95 laptop, Win98 laptop, WinME, WinXP laptop,
>and an old 486 with Win3.11 which may not get networked at all.
>
>Except for the 486 all boxen are Pentium 90 or better. Except for the
>WinXP and Win98 boxen all the rest will be going Debian(well, Libranet's
>version) as soon as some data can be swapped around. From a strictly
>workman's point of view, I would much prefer wireless if the old OSs or
>hardware can be made to support it.
>
>

Each computer will need some sort of NIC (Network Interface Card,
although I understand that IBM used to call it a Network Access Card, so
perhaps NIC/NAC is more accurate :-) ). Most newer PCs have the NIC
circuitry built into the motherboard nowadays, with an RJ-45 standard
ethernet port on the back.

The NIC can be either a wired nic, or a wireless nic. As a general rule,
the wired nics are _much_ less expensive (I've seen them as cheap as $4
new in Fry's, to more than $100); generally, the $14-$20 variety is
quite adequate for a situation like yours. For the desktop, you just get
a PCI (or ISA, if your computer only has ISA slots, in which case you
may have to mess with jumpers or driver configuration programs) and plug
it in. A wireless NIC is typically a PCMCIA wireless card for what you'd
put into a laptop (or perhaps a CompactFlash device, etc), and if you
wanted to use it in a non-laptop, you'd have to get a PCI adapter for it
as well. These combos usually will cost in the neighborhood of $20-$35
for the PCI adapter plus $60-$90 for the PCCard NIC, for a total of
$80-$125. As you can see, the wired NIC is less expensive. (But shop
around; I haven't in several months and perhaps things have changed.)

I count 3 laptops in your list above, so you'll need 3 wireless cards
that work in your laptop/OS (good luck on older machines/OSes! - perhaps
the XP laptop is new enough to have wireless built-in, but probably
not). For the other machines, you'll either have to get wireless cards
that work with them, or get wired NICs and run some Category 5 (CAT5)
cable, which is pretty much the only stuff you'll find in the networking
section of most computer stores.

To tie them all together, you'll need a switch/router. I count 7 boxes,
so you'll need one that either has 8 ports, or you'll need one with four
ports and the capability to support wireless for another four. (You need
to leave one wired port free for your future broadband connection; you
_will_ someday move to it; it's just too sweet compared to dial-up not
to.) Or you can daisy-change smaller switches/routers (aka "hubs" in my
vernacular, although not strictly accurate). If it were me, I'd
definitely get one with wireless capability. The four-port versions with
wireless run somewhere in the $60-$120 range; the non-wireless units
about $10 or $20 less. Netgear, SMC, LinkSYS, should all be fine, and
are common in the stores. I'd personally stay away from Microsoft units,
but that's philosophical on my part; I don't want to send _any_ money
their way if I can avoid it. You want it to have DHCP server
capabilities, and probably a firewall (although not really necessary as
long as you're not connecting to the outside world through it, and you
could use your old 486 or some other computer as a firewall, but that's
an extra step - getting it built into the switch/router is easier,
albeit less flexible/adaptable/upgradeable).

So basically you set up the switch/router in a central (electrically, at
least, if not geographically) location, and then string the cables from
it to the various computers.

That takes care of the physical wiring stuff.

Then each computer has to have the NIC driver installed/configured, and
the networking software has to be installed/configured. It's fairly easy
(once you've done it a time or two) on both Linux and newer versions of
Windows; Win95 is likely to be tough, and 98 might be as well.. You can
configure the network software on each machine to use either a static IP
("network") address or a dynamic address (aka "dhcp"). If you use dhcp,
the router/switch will assign each computer an address, making sure that
one computer doesn't conflict with another. The disadvantage is that the
address _might_ change from boot to boot, which could possibly affect
some of your network operations (because you've been copying your files
from this computer to that computer at address a.b.c.d, but today that
computer's address is no longer a.b.c.d but rather a.b.c.f). If you use
static addressing, you, the "network administrator", must make sure that
each machine gets a unique and valid IP address. I suspect that as a
newbie to networking you'll find it easier to use dhcp; you can always
switch later, and you can have a mix of the two on your network.

Setting up the wireless machines is done pretty much the same way as
setting up the wired machines, although there may be a bit more work
depending on how your router/switch is configured to handle wireless.

And of course, you don't have to get them all working at once. You can
focus today's efforts on the wired clients, and figure out wireless next
week. Or vice-versa.

As far as outside connections: you can have one computer be the dial-up
"master", and the other machines can share network access through that
box (in which case, that box needs to be/have a firewall instead of or
in addition to the firewall in the switch/router - a firewall is not
"necessary"; it's just a good idea to keep the bad guys out). Or if you
get a broadband connection (DSL, Cable, etc), get a broadband modem that
has an ethernet output instead of a USB output; then just plug the
ethernet into the 8th port on your switch/router (and reboot the
switch/router if necessary), and boom, all your computers can have fast
internet access, without changing anything else. Very easy.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

If you have two machines that already have a NIC, you can string them
together with a "rolled" cable, which is a special CAT5 ethernet cable
for bypassing hubs while connecting two and only two computers together.
Some newer network cards have the "rolling" capability built-in, and
automatic, so you can use just a normal CAT5 cable. This way you can
connect two machines and get a "feel" for what it takes to network the
computers together without spending more than $15 or so up-front for the
rolled cable. There's another common name for a rolled cable, but the
name escapes me at the moment.

-- 
Kent
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• Previous message: Gruessle: "RE: .htaccess question"
• In reply to: Cybe R. Wizard: "Wish to network my home computers but don't know Jack about it"
• Next in thread: Kevin Mark: "Re: Wish to network my home computers but don't know Jack about it"
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