Ray, Thanks very much for you good, detailed response. You are correct in your assessment of my level of *nix awareness. After I wrote the email to you this afternoon I discovered a How-to-for-Newbies (or something like that) on Samba. As I started to go through it another paradigm penny dropped for me: The How-to stepped through (too quickly for me) setting up a group with several users in the group as the first step (after installation of Samba). That's kind of an alien concept in a home office situation (we are only three persons -- if you are willing to count Bonnie, our Borrrderrr Collie, in the group) and we have no need for that kind of fine structure for our work. But I'm quite willing to set up such things. I just need to be aware that the need for them exists in order to begin to start. (I mention this as merely an illustration of the great communication gap that I think exists for those of us who have done most of our work in a non-*nix world and/or a non-networked world and are trying to learn the new tools.) I have actually hacked away part-time at trying to use my Linux box for over a year now. I've learned some of the command line stuff (and I knew a bit of it from being exposed to some of it in an industrial environment about 7 years ago). But I have a considerable aversion to command lines and have tried to use Linuxconf and Swat to set things up. This may have resulted in my system already having some of what you recommend. But I'll check into it. I really do appreciate your pointers. I'll have to study them a bit to see what I need to do to make my system work. Thanks again!! Mike Ray Olszewski wrote: > 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] > ---------------------------------------------------------------- -- Mike Green SaeSolved:: http://www.saesolved.com http://www.widgetchuck.com http://www.sitewidgets.com
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