Wi-Fi network with switch

The network is wired and wireless with the following hardware:

1. Arrakis, a dual-boot linux/windows2000 computer
2. Caladan, a Win2k computer
3. A switch
<http://www.dynexproducts.com/p-185-dynex-5-port-10100-ethernet-switch.aspx>
4. An Asus WL-330g 802.11g wireless ethernet adapter
5. SMC7004VWBR 802.11b Wi-Fi router

The router is on one floor, everything else mentioned on a different
floor. Arrakis, Caladan and the WL-330g connect to the switch with
standard 10/100 LAN Cable CAT5 / RJ45, and everything runs smoothly and
works fine. The WL-330g was configured from Arrakis in win2k with an
Asus utility.

I'm thinking of changing the OS of Caladan from win2k to linux but have
a concern. When I first connected Caladan to the hub the IP was static
and I wasn't getting a connection. I enabled DHCP on Caladan, still
nothing. Next I ran the Asus software to detect and configure the
WL-330g. The first few times the Asus utility couldn't detect the
WL-330g, but after a minute or two it found the adapter. I didn't
configure it, just clicked "ok", pinged the router, started firefox and
all was well.

I'm not sure what, if anything, running the Asus configuration utility
for the WL-330g from Caladan did, though. Caladan doesn't have a large
enough hard drive for dual boot, by the way. I'd like to know ahead of
time how hard it will be for Caladan to connect to the internet if it's
running linux and not windows. If Caladan is running linux then the
Asus configuration utility can't run from Caladan to detect the
WL-330g.

It seems a bit weird that Caladan wasn't connecting to the internet
until I ran the Asus WL-330g utility from Caladan. I'd previously
configured the WL-330g from Arrakis using the software, under win2k.
It wasn't necessary to reconfigure the WL-330g from Caladan, but it was
necessary, apparently, to detect the WL-330g from Caladan.

Why was it necessary to run the configuration utility from Caladan to
detect when the WL-330g was already configured? The MAC for the
ethernet NIC of Arrakis was presumably "registered" with the WL-330g so
that when Arrakis booted into linux the WL-330g already "knew" Arrakis.
In the case of Caladan, the WL-330g had no record of Caladan until
Caladan detected the WL-330g. Is that right?

This implies to me that it's going to be difficult to change Caladan
from Windows to Linux because it'll be difficult to "introduce" the
WL-330g to Caladan. On the other hand, since the WL-330g already
"knows" the NIC for Caladan, maybe not.

What about a third computer, call it "Ix", which has only ever run
linux. Will it be impossible, or difficult, for Ix to connect to the
internet from that switch because it's unknown to the WL-330g?


Thanks,

Thufir