Simple two computer network.

I have a new computer which came installed with Windows XP.
My old and reliable computer has SuSE 9.1 installed. I want
to hook them up as a two computer network. I have a cable
modem, an Ethernet connection on each computer, but no
router.

Cost is my number one consideration. I want to be able to
access the Internet from both computers. I also want to
install SuSE on the new computer and be able to share Linux
files, printer and modem. I can learn the Windows stuff at
a later time.

Does anyone know of a web site or any other reference that
will help me achieve this?

Thanks in advance,

Don

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 01:34:54 GMT, don wrote:
> I have a new computer which came installed with Windows XP.
> My old and reliable computer has SuSE 9.1 installed. I want
> to hook them up as a two computer network. I have a cable
> modem, an Ethernet connection on each computer, but no
> router.
>
> Cost is my number one consideration. I want to be able to
> access the Internet from both computers. I also want to
> install SuSE on the new computer and be able to share Linux
> files, printer and modem. I can learn the Windows stuff at
> a later time.

Your options:
1. Spend a monthly fee to buy an extra IP addy from your ISP.
2. Buy a _router_
3. Buy a second nic and make one computer your firewall/gateway/router.

Downside to number 3, that two nic computer has to up for the second
computer to access the net.


http://tldp.org/ has a few documents you could use.

enter masquerade in the search box.

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 01:34:54 +0000, don wrote:

> I have a new computer which came installed with Windows XP.
> My old and reliable computer has SuSE 9.1 installed. I want
> to hook them up as a two computer network. I have a cable
> modem, an Ethernet connection on each computer, but no
> router.
>
> Cost is my number one consideration. I want to be able to
> access the Internet from both computers. I also want to
> install SuSE on the new computer and be able to share Linux
> files, printer and modem. I can learn the Windows stuff at
> a later time.
>
> Does anyone know of a web site or any other reference that
> will help me achieve this?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Don

Suggest you buy an ethernet switch. It's fairly cheap - plug the cable
modem to the input on the switch, and plug each computer into a switch
output port. Another option - look for a cable modem with more than one
ethernet port.

Once that is done, you'll need to learn a little about samba to share
linux stuff with a MS computer - there is a samba howto at www.tldp.org
and the full text of the O'Reilly samba book is online at their web site.

On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 19:51:08 -0700, ray wrote:

> Suggest you buy an ethernet switch. It's fairly cheap - plug the cable
> modem to the input on the switch, and plug each computer into a switch
> output port. Another option - look for a cable modem with more than one
> ethernet port.

Both of those options might force the OP into buying an extra IP
address from his ISP.

On 2005-12-11, Bit Twister wrote:

[...]

> Your options:
> 1. Spend a monthly fee to buy an extra IP addy from your ISP.
> 2. Buy a _router_
> 3. Buy a second nic and make one computer your firewall/gateway/router.
>
> Downside to number 3, that two nic computer has to up for the second
> computer to access the net.
>
Thanks for the quick response, Bit Twister. I think I will
look into getting a router.

> http://tldp.org/ has a few documents you could use.
>
> enter masquerade in the search box.

Okay. Thanks again.

Don

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 03:13:43 GMT, don wrote:
> On 2005-12-11, Bit Twister wrote:
>
>> http://tldp.org/ has a few documents you could use.
>>
>> enter masquerade in the search box.
>
> Okay. Thanks again.

Masquerading would be done by your firewall/gateway/router box.
If you buy the router, it will do the masquerading for you.

don <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 2005-12-11, Bit Twister wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> Your options:
>> 1. Spend a monthly fee to buy an extra IP addy from your ISP.
>> 2. Buy a _router_
>> 3. Buy a second nic and make one computer your firewall/gateway/router.
>>
>> Downside to number 3, that two nic computer has to up for the second
>> computer to access the net.
>>
>Thanks for the quick response, Bit Twister. I think I will
>look into getting a router.

I'd suggest looking for a Linksys WRT54G, perhaps on on eBay.
The older (version 2 or 3) models were going for $40 a few
months ago, and there is a whole new version on the market now,
so I'd expect they are even cheaper. The latest models go for
$60-$80, so that is an option too.

It's almost a plug and play to set one up. You get a full
fledged (Linux based) firewall and a four port switch for wired
access plus 801.11g wireless if you want it (laptop, print server,
whatever).

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)

On 2005-12-12, Floyd L. Davidson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> I'd suggest looking for a Linksys WRT54G, perhaps on on eBay.
> The older (version 2 or 3) models were going for $40 a few
> months ago, and there is a whole new version on the market now,
> so I'd expect they are even cheaper. The latest models go for
> $60-$80, so that is an option too.
>
> It's almost a plug and play to set one up. You get a full
> fledged (Linux based) firewall and a four port switch for wired
> access plus 801.11g wireless if you want it (laptop, print server,
> whatever).


Seeing as how they're Linux-based, I'm guessing that this is possible,
but I've never used one (my router is an old Pentium box), so I'm not
sure - does the router treat each port like a separate interface? In
other words, does it allow one to completely isolate the boxes hooked
in via cable from those connected wirelessly? Something like DROP
everything from $WIRELESS_IF except those packets going to $INTERNET ?

I guess what I'm asking is: is this possible?

iptables -A FORWARD -i $WRLS_IF -o $NET_IF -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i $WRLS_IF -j DROP

Perhaps I should by one just to play around with it...

RW

--

http://rlworkman.net

On 2005-12-12, Robby Workman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On 2005-12-12, Floyd L. Davidson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> I'd suggest looking for a Linksys WRT54G, perhaps on on eBay.
>> The older (version 2 or 3) models were going for $40 a few
>> months ago, and there is a whole new version on the market now,
>> so I'd expect they are even cheaper. The latest models go for
>> $60-$80, so that is an option too.
>>
>> It's almost a plug and play to set one up. You get a full
>> fledged (Linux based) firewall and a four port switch for wired
>> access plus 801.11g wireless if you want it (laptop, print server,
>> whatever).
>
>
> Seeing as how they're Linux-based, I'm guessing that this is possible,
> but I've never used one (my router is an old Pentium box), so I'm not
> sure - does the router treat each port like a separate interface? In
> other words, does it allow one to completely isolate the boxes hooked
> in via cable from those connected wirelessly? Something like DROP
> everything from $WIRELESS_IF except those packets going to $INTERNET ?
>
> I guess what I'm asking is: is this possible?
>
> iptables -A FORWARD -i $WRLS_IF -o $NET_IF -j ACCEPT
> iptables -A FORWARD -i $WRLS_IF -j DROP
>
> Perhaps I should by one just to play around with it...

ACK... make that "buy one" rather than "by one"

--

http://rlworkman.net

Robby Workman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 2005-12-12, Floyd L. Davidson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> I'd suggest looking for a Linksys WRT54G, perhaps on on eBay.
>> The older (version 2 or 3) models were going for $40 a few
>> months ago, and there is a whole new version on the market now,
>> so I'd expect they are even cheaper. The latest models go for
>> $60-$80, so that is an option too.
>>
>> It's almost a plug and play to set one up. You get a full
>> fledged (Linux based) firewall and a four port switch for wired
>> access plus 801.11g wireless if you want it (laptop, print server,
>> whatever).
>
>Seeing as how they're Linux-based, I'm guessing that this is possible,
>but I've never used one (my router is an old Pentium box), so I'm not
>sure - does the router treat each port like a separate interface? In

The stock firmware from Linksys does not allow that. But for
versions 2 and 3 various third party firmware is available which
enables it.

>other words, does it allow one to completely isolate the boxes hooked
>in via cable from those connected wirelessly?

Even with the stock firmware there is a way to do that though!
Just buy two of them, and use one as the firewall to the
Internet, but with the wireless disabled. The other one should
have the wireless turned on, and have a LAN port connected to a
LAN port on the first one. The trick then is to put the
wireless on one subnet and the LAN ports on a different subnet,
and route *both* of them to the Internet port (which is unused).
Hence everything on the wireless will be seen by all wireless
clients, and everything on the 4 LAN ports will be seen by
anything connected to any of them (because it is a switch). But
the routing between the two of them will be disrupted because
all packets to either subnet will *only* be routed to the
Internet port... thus being dumped in the bit bucket.

The hard part is figuring out how to use the HTTP interface to
set up routing.

And regardless of the fact that it can be done, it is a waste of
time compared to just downloading DD-WRT firmware which allows
logging into the router and doing it the easy way.

>Something like DROP
>everything from $WIRELESS_IF except those packets going to $INTERNET ?
>
>I guess what I'm asking is: is this possible?
>
> iptables -A FORWARD -i $WRLS_IF -o $NET_IF -j ACCEPT
> iptables -A FORWARD -i $WRLS_IF -j DROP
>
>Perhaps I should by one just to play around with it...

I picked up a couple of them new originally, and had so much fun
that I bought another pair of used ones on eBay. The used ones
were perfect, and cost me $40 each last spring. Great
toys... :-)

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)