Complicated LAN

Right, I am in need of a solution for a complicated problem. Any help
would be really appreciated.

There is a wireless router downstairs which is working fine. One
high-spec desktop of mine running windows xp is connected to that
router. Five other laptops which are not mine are connected to the
router as well so they still need to be working at the end.

I have three other low-spec desktops running various flavours of linux
I want connected together (I have an ethernet hub, cable, ETC) but also
able to access the internet through the router without wireless cards
in each.

Would it be possible to connect two of the desktops to one of them
using the hub and turning the one they are connected to into a DHCP
server or maybe putting a wireless network card into one and using ICS?


Here is an overview of the current situation at:
http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=networkpz7.gif

I also have a hub with 4 ethernet cables in it which I could use.

On 2006-12-26, Tokenhost <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
<zap>
> There is a wireless router downstairs which is working fine.
<zap>
> I have three other low-spec desktops running various flavours of linux
> I want connected together (I have an ethernet hub, cable, ETC) but also
> able to access the internet through the router without wireless cards
> in each.

Just connect them to the hub and then pull a cable from the hub to the
wireless router, the router should also have some wired connection
available.

> Would it be possible to connect two of the desktops to one of them
> using the hub and turning the one they are connected to into a DHCP
> server or maybe putting a wireless network card into one and using ICS?

That's another solution, but then you'll have to configure the machine
acting as 'server' as a gateway for the other machines.

Davide

--
Linux; a re-Gnu-able resource.
-- Gareth Barnard

Davide Bianchi wrote:
> On 2006-12-26, Tokenhost <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> <zap>
> > There is a wireless router downstairs which is working fine.
> <zap>
> > I have three other low-spec desktops running various flavours of linux
> > I want connected together (I have an ethernet hub, cable, ETC) but also
> > able to access the internet through the router without wireless cards
> > in each.
>
> Just connect them to the hub and then pull a cable from the hub to the
> wireless router, the router should also have some wired connection
> available.
>
> > Would it be possible to connect two of the desktops to one of them
> > using the hub and turning the one they are connected to into a DHCP
> > server or maybe putting a wireless network card into one and using ICS?
>
> That's another solution, but then you'll have to configure the machine
> acting as 'server' as a gateway for the other machines.
>
> Davide
>
> --
> Linux; a re-Gnu-able resource.
> -- Gareth Barnard


Thanks for that,
I really appreciate the help and the first solution sounds the easiest
but there is a slight problem with the wireless router being downstairs
and the hub and the rest of the LAN being upstairs.

So how would you configure the server as a gateway? Does it have to be
a fairly high spec machine or can it be just a low spec one. Also, what
would you recommend the gate way to run in terms of operating system.
Is there a Linux distro designed for that?

On 2006-12-26, Tokenhost <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I really appreciate the help and the first solution sounds the easiest
> but there is a slight problem with the wireless router being downstairs
> and the hub and the rest of the LAN being upstairs.

Yes, that is what's usually called "to pull a cable"...

> So how would you configure the server as a gateway?

The simplest is to enable ip forwarding, if you also have a different
subnet then you also need to enable NAT. See the network-howto. But I'd go
with the cable solution.

Davide

--
Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed
the worst about Hollywood.
-- Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx)

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 01:49:13 -0800, Tokenhost rearranged some electrons to
form:


> Here is an overview of the current situation at:
> http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=networkpz7.gif
>
> I also have a hub with 4 ethernet cables in it which I could use.

Since none of your Linux boxes contain a wireless
network card, in order to use one of them as a gateway, you'll need to
give it access to the network.

If you plan to use the XP box as your gateway, you're posting in the wrong
newsgroup :-)

It would be easy if you can route a cat5 cable from upstairs to
downstairs, then you can use the hardware you already have.

--
David M (dmacchiarolo)
http://home.triad.rr.com/redsled
T/S 53
sled351 Linux 2.4.18-14 has been up 16 days 8:53

Thanks for the reply,

> Since none of your Linux boxes contain a wireless
> network card, in order to use one of them as a gateway, you'll need to
> give it access to the network.

Yes, thats what I intended. That is just the network situation at the
moment.
I will probably take the network card out of the Windows Xp machine and
put it into a Linux box which will be the gateway.

> If you plan to use the XP box as your gateway, you're posting in the wrong
> newsgroup :-)

Nope. I will probably change that and install a version of Suse in the
near future anyway.

> It would be easy if you can route a cat5 cable from upstairs to
> downstairs, then you can use the hardware you already have.

Thats not a possibility just because of the way the house and network
is layed out.
So could you recommend an OS for the gateway and how should I configure
it?

Sorry, Davide you answered it for me
Do you have any recommendations for the OS of the gateway and does it
matter about the specs of the system.

On 2006-12-26, Tokenhost <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Do you have any recommendations for the OS of the gateway and does it
> matter about the specs of the system.

Anyone will do.
Davide


--
Perl: the only language that looks the same before and after encryption.

> Anyone will do.
> Davide

Thanks everyone for your help. I will try and set this up over the next
week or so.
If you have any other tips for this then please post them.

Tokenhost wrote:

> Right, I am in need of a solution for a complicated problem. Any help
> would be really appreciated.
>
> There is a wireless router downstairs which is working fine. One
> high-spec desktop of mine running windows xp is connected to that
> router. Five other laptops which are not mine are connected to the
> router as well so they still need to be working at the end.
>
> I have three other low-spec desktops running various flavours of linux
> I want connected together (I have an ethernet hub, cable, ETC) but also
> able to access the internet through the router without wireless cards
> in each.
>
> Would it be possible to connect two of the desktops to one of them
> using the hub and turning the one they are connected to into a DHCP
> server or maybe putting a wireless network card into one and using ICS?
>
>
> Here is an overview of the current situation at:
> http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=networkpz7.gif
>
> I also have a hub with 4 ethernet cables in it which I could use.

Tokenhost,

What broadband router are you using? My LAN uses a Cisco WRT-54G
wired/wireless broadband router running 802.11b/g protocol. I had a Linux
Server connected to that LAN until just recently. The Linux server was
running Redhat Linux 9 Server OS connected wired to the Cisco router and
joined to my HomelanW local workgroup. I wasn't running a domain, just a
workgroup LAN.

I would not use a hub in my network. There are too many collisions setup
with the use of the hub that it will negatively impact any router that
you're using.

Get back to me on the router that you're using and I'll take a look at the
setup that you're proposing.

Dan