Please assist me in setting up this network?

[TheNetNewbie]

Hey guys, this is my first day on this forum, was pushed to signing up due to the fact that after 4 days of attempting to resolve my problem, im still failing.

The Plan

To have a network flow accordingly to this map:

CABLE MODEM
||
Server(The Main PC - Linux)
||
Router now acting as a switch with DHCP Turned OFF(Router is a Linksys)
||
OTHER PC'S(Will be running Windows)


WHAT I NEED TO ACCOMPLISH
I want to no longer use my router to access internet nor its' DHCP services. I want my router to act solely as a switch with my server granting all PC's access to the internet.


THE SOLUTION
I wish I knew, if any of you can please help me resolve this that would be greatly appreciated and a lesson well learned on my part.

Also, if possible I would prefer to use Fedora, but if there are other suggestions, im open to any distro as long as its stable, good and up to date.

I figure I will need to install DHCP, DNS, and some sort of NAT? im not sure tho, please help.

[b2bwild]

If your goal is to only provide internet access..
Why not to create a proxy server instead of manually routing everything.

[Lazydog]

I run this setup at home now and my gateway pc does the following:

Routing
DHCP
DNS
Firewall

And hosts the following networks:

Linux 3 machines
Testbed 4 machine
Windows/PS3 2 machines

If you like RedHat products then take a look at CentOS. It is RedHat without the tax.
BTW way Fedora is the test bed for RedHat. It's not always stable and bleeding edge which could include security risks.

You should use GOOGLE to research how things are setup and configured.

[secondmouse]

Any Linux distro (even BSD's) will work for you in this situation as long as the main server becomes the default gateway for the "OTHER PC's". DHCP, DNS, Http Proxy servers are all optional --- depends on what you really need.

But NAT (with iptables I am using) is a must in order for the main server to become the default gateway. You can take a look at IP Masquerading (NAT) using iptables