LAN QUestion

[madscientist300]

Hi,
I am gonna install linux on my box and i just wanted to know thati if i intall it, will i be able to connect to the internet Via LAN because the box with the internet connection is runing windows XP
Pro. If if it is possible, i would like to know how to do it. thanks!

[root.veg]

Yikes. It's not particularly hard to do, but you probably ought to do some more searching on private IP addresses, IP masquerading, routing and that sort of stuff. Anyway, to get you started...

1) You need to enable internet connection sharing on your Windows box

2) You need a network card in both your Linux box and your Windows box. This means you'll have two network interfaces in your Windows box - one for the external internet connection, one for the internal LAN.

3) If you only have the two computers, you can simply connect the two network cards together using a CROSSOVER cable. No hub/switch required.

4) If you want to network more than two computers on your LAN, you need a hub or switch, and you need to use STRAIGHT-THROUGH network cables.

5) Your Linux box should be able to get to the net by using your network card - the interface will lmost likely be called eth0. You need to make sure that the default gateway for eth0 is the IP address (on the internal LAN) of your Windows box. Exactly how you do this depends on what distro you use.

[stumbles]

Originally posted by madscientist300
Hi,
I am gonna install linux on my box and i just wanted to know thati if i intall it, will i be able to connect to the internet Via LAN because the box with the internet connection is runing windows XP
Pro. If if it is possible, i would like to know how to do it. thanks!

Yes it will work. There are many topics in the forum covering this subject. This might help you get started;

http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Networks/Easy_Internet_Sharing.html

[sclebo05]

an assumption was made above and i want to clarify. you need two network cards on your windows machine if it connects to a cable modem, router, etc. if you have dialup, you do NOT need two network cards, only one.

[root.veg]

an assumption was made above and i want to clarify. you need two network cards on your windows machine if it connects to a cable modem, router, etc. if you have dialup, you do NOT need two network cards, only one.

I did say "network interfaces" not "network cards" but you're right, I wasn't particularly clear about the difference... thanks for pointing that out!

Just thought... another situation in which you don't two network cards is if you use a USB ADSL modem.

Also, the help file that stumbles linked to is very useful info, but remember that it describes using a linux box as the gateway / router, not a Windows box. Plus iptables is definitely a lot more common now, and I would guess most firewall / routing tools you come across would use iptables by now, given that it's standard for the 2.4 kernel.

[stumbles]

Originally posted by madscientist300
Hi,
I am gonna install linux on my box and i just wanted to know thati if i intall it, will i be able to connect to the internet Via LAN because the box with the internet connection is runing windows XP
Pro. If if it is possible, i would like to know how to do it. thanks!

If you were to give more detail it would be helpful. For example is it something like this;

ISP > XP box > Linux box

or

ISP > router > XP Box

[tucolino]

Given that your network cards are well supported under linux, Mandrake has a very simple GUI in the control center that allows you to share your internet connection. It runs a DHCP server for you, so all your computers connected to it will get their own IP's on the LAN.

if I get what you're saying, you'd probably want something like this.

ISP===>Your New Linux Box===>Hub===>Computers in your LAN

You will need one card to connect to your ISP abd another one to connect to your hub.

Hope taht helps.

tuco