OK. Forgive me if some of this is a bit too tlementaty, but it sounds like
you don't know Linux/Unix hardly at all, so I don't want to skip by things
that matter.
For the other two hosts to communicate with the Linux host, all 3 need Ip
addresses on the same network. Typical small networks might use the last of
the 4 IP octets for the host part of the address. So all three will have the
first 3 octets in commong -- 192.168.1 is the typical example -- and
different host numbers in the last octet -- day 1, 2, and 3.
On the Linux host, you would specify this with a command to configure the
ethernet interface (normally eth0), approximately this:
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.255 broadcasr 192.168.1.255
You need to tell the Linux host about the network it is on. You do this with
the route command, as follows:
route add -net 192.168.1.0 dev eth0
Your Linux host probably has startup scripts to do this as part of the
boot/init sequence. I don't recall where RH keeps these, and it isn't
entirely standardized -- try /sbin/init.d or /etc/init.d . The script you
want is probably called network. When you install RH, it asks you for the
information needed to set up this script correctly, but you may have given
it incorrect information, if Linux was that new to you.
IP information on Win95 (and probably Win98) is in Control Panel -> Networks
-> TCP/IP -> Properties. The TCP/IP stack needs to be associated with your
Ethernet driver (not your ppp dialer; this may mean you need two TCP/IP
stacks installed). It will offer you places to enter Address, Netmask,
Gateway, and other things not immediately important.
Ok. Now that's the IP stuff. Get it all right and you should be able to ping
around (by address). You communicate by hostnames, you need a way to
translate names into addresss, a process called name resolution. On Linux,
you have two basic ways to do this:
1. Put a list of addresses and the corresponding names in
a file called /etc/hosts
2. Run the BIND package to provide Domain Name Service (DNS)
to all hosts on the LAN. (See the DNS HowTo at
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO.html .)
On Windows, you have the same two choices.
1. I know there is an equivalent to /etc/hosts, but I don't
know what it is. Check your Windows docs.
2. If BIND is running on the Linux host, you can tell the
Windows hosts to use it as their nameserver. This
is part of the network configuration setup I
discussed above.
To share files and printers, you probably want to run Samba on the Linux
host. This provides support for Windows-style file and print sharing on
Linux. For this part, read the SMB HowTo at
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/SMB-HOWTO.html (it may also be on your Linux
host; look around in /usr/doc).
I don't know how to "share modems", but you can use one of the hosts as a
router/firewall to connect the others to the Internet. At least you can use
the Linux host for this purpose (probably the Windows ones too, if you buy
the right software, but that's outside my expertise). Look at the Firewall
HowTo (http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Firewall-HOWTO.html) for how to get
started, or look at a site that supports a specialized version of Linux
designed to work as an embedded router (one such is the Linux Router
Project; see http://lrp.c0wz.com).
You should be able to connect the machines on a LAN and to the Internet at
the same time. I've never had trouble doing this with one host, and doing it
with three, each running a separate, independent Internet connection, poses
no special problems for Linux or (I think) Windows. PPP will set up the
default route (gateway) that each host needs on the fly, based on the
dynamic IP address assigned, and the static part of the routing table will
let the 3 hosts communicate locally. The only tricky part may be DNS. For
this sort of setup, I'd definitely use /etc/hosts (and the Windows
equivalent) for local name resolution, and supply each host with its ISP's
nameservers for DNS resolution of off-LAN hostmanes.
At 06:35 PM 3/2/00 -0500, Mike Green wrote:
>Thanks for your good and quick response.
>
>I probably muddied the waters with the information about the modems and
>ISPs. It's just that it seems that the fact that the machines are also
>linked to the Internet at times somehow is connected to their being
>linked to each other. My Internet hookups (PPP) work okay on the Linux
>box and the Win 98 one -- and they were working on the Win 95 one, but
>who knows at the moment :-) It is the three machines that I can't get
>networking together when Linux is included.
>
>What I want is to have the three machines networked together so that
>they can share each others files and printers (and it would be nice if
>they could share modems -- e.g. all use the dual analog one on the Win
>98 machine, or the 56k one on the Linux one).
>
>Although the settings on the Win 9xs are Win 9x issues, the settings on
>each machine would seem to be somehow related to those on the others if
>they are to network together. E.g. after a long time I finally learned
>that I had to assign static IP addresses to each of them. But I'm
>guessing that somehow they have to be able to find out each other's IP
>addresses to talk to each other.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------------------------------------------------
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
