New to Networking?

[fvs]

This is my first attempt to try to set up a home network consisting of 3 boxes, 1 linux debian, 1 winxp, 1 Mac G4 and 1 epson printer. I want to make my linux the server and the others workstations. I already have an dhcp internet connection using a netgear router for my present system each has access to the internet through it's own nic's and the netgear router. The part that I can't seem to get clearly is what to do to each machine to recognize and use my linux as a server? I tried to use the How to from linux.com, but I'm confused.
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[Zelmo]

Um, which howto? Was it something like the SAMBA howto?

[va1damar]

So you have a bunch of computers using a wireless router and you want to use the Debian box as a server that the other computers can access (for things like central file storage, etc), right?

I'm not very solid on networking, but I'm trying to learn. I think the following is the general approach, but if anyone sees a flaw, please point it out.

1 ) make sure the Debian server has a reliable connection to the internet. It's fine if the server is plugged into the wireless router.

2 ) set server up with a static ip address. if it has a dynamic ip address, the workstations won't be able to find the server when it gets a new ip. I did this recently and followed a little writeup here.

3 ) run a dhcp daemon on the server. this way you won't have to set up static ips for each workstation and can quickly configure new computers for your network (if a friend comes over & want's to use their laptop, say).

4 ) figure out a DNS solution. If you don't have a way to resolve domain names (ie, www.google.com), the network is nearly worthless. I don't know how to deal with this specifically, but I see two possibilites. Either run a DNS daemon from the server (this isn't too hard) or configure the server to use your ISP's DNS server (I think that's how it works now: your router takes unresolved domain names and forwards them to the DNS server run by your ISP (ATT, Verizon, Comcast, etc) ). Can someone else jump in here?

5 ) configure each workstation.

• set the gateway's new static ip address as the 'default gateway'. This is the ip address that all traffic defaults to (ie. since google's ip address isn't on your local network, you computer won't know where traffic for 64.233.187.99 goes, so it will send it to the 'default gateway' ip - your Debian server).
• tell your workstation(s) to get ip addresses automatically from the gateway server.
• tell your workstation(s) to send use the gateway as the nameserver.

There are how-tos all over the web. Look for 'linux home network' or simillar. O'Reilly has a cookbook recipe, but a lot of the steps may not be relevent & it's kinda terse.

[fvs]

Much appreciated, Thanks for helping, I'll try it out.
fvs

[ricgal]

I have two Linux boxes connected to the net through a DLink di604 router.
I am able to set static ip addresses through the DLink based on the mac addresses of the NICs
Both machines get on the net.
Beyond that, it is a mystery how to share files, and even the printer.

One Machine is running RedHat 9, and I have named it 300-96
This machine prints through CUPS to a HP CLJ2550

The second runs PCLinuxOS, just installed from the Linux Format December disk
The PCLinuxOS potentially has the name 450-256, based on speed and memory.
I am not aware if CUPS is on this second machine.

Thanks for any help
Rick