On Sun, Apr 14, 2002 at 04:54:17PM +0700, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:

Having tried to get an idea about the working of a home network from the howto's man pages and the SuSe manual I am at a point that I am looking for a more popular an hands on description what can be done and how with a home network. My home network exists of two computers, one with SuSe 7.3 and the other with Slackware 3.5, connected via a Rj45 crossover cable. The network is setup, the computers are connected but that is it for now.

My network experience is based on DOS, a laplink cable and programs such as norton in order to link computers. In DOS I can look into the other computer, get files and copy files from the second computer. But with Linux? Does somebody has the URL of a popular description of networking ?

Some pointers/hints, etc... 1. In the long run you will want to use either a hub (cheaper) or a switch (more expensive but faster once you have more that a couple of computers). For now the cross-over is good enough. 2. Look into the telnet command to learn how to log on to one computer using the other's keyboard and display. You may also need to enable this capability by uncommenting the telnet line in /etc/inetd.conf. I *think* this may already be done for you by default but don't remember for sure. If you need to do this yourself, see the comment at the top of the file on how to restart inetd to make the change take effect. 3. Look into the ftp command to learn how to copy files from one computer to the other. Again, there is an "ftp" line in /etc/inetd.conf that may need to be uncommented. 4. Look into NFS to learn how to make a directory on one computer show up as a directory on the other. One system needs to "nfs share" a directory (see /etc/exports and the exportfs command). The system you are typing at needs to mount the shared directory to a local mount point. See /etc/fstab and the mount command. The filesystem type is nfs. 5. If one of your computers runs DOS/Windows, forget 2, 3 and 4 above and look into Samba. This allows your Linux machine to share files and printers just like Windows. This requires some complex setup which can be made a little easier using the Swat program. Swat allows you to open up web page (http://localhost:901) which allows you to configure Samba by filling in fields and making selections on the web page. It has links to pretty good help for everything. Still, fairly complicated. The web page will ask for id (root) and password. -- Robert C. Paulsen, Jr. robert@paulsenonline.net

My $.02. (after reading the other responses) First, I prefer the following setup: --->Internet--->Dedicated Firewall--->Hub or switch--->home network For my own personal setup, I use a cable modem connected to a Linksys BEFW11S4 (Wireless Cable Modem/DSL router). The non-wrireless version is the BEFSR41. Both have a 4 port 10/100 switch. The non-wireless version is available under $100 US. The advantage of using a cheap NAT box is that it tends to isolate your internal network. However, switches and hubs are very inexpensive. If you have a permanent network connection, then IMHO, a deicated firewall (low cost NAT box, Linux or SOHO) is a must. Also, IMHO, I prefer the internal systems to also be running a firewall as an additional protection. Whatever firewall you chose, you can use either dynamic or static IP addresses for the network members. In the case where you may simply share 2 machines with one on dialup, the use of a crossover cable will work fine. -- Jerry Feldman Portfolio Partner Engineering 508-467-4315 http://www.testdrive.compaq.com/linux/ Compaq Computer Corp. 200 Forest Street MRO1-3/F1 Marlboro, Ma. 01752