Home network - big question!

[Rasjid]

Everard Edwards wrote:
> 
> I have two PC's at home.  One running Linux and one with dual boot Linux/Windows (I'm trying to move my partner to Linux but she seems to always find latent bugs in programs she runs and so isn't totally willing!).  I'd like to network them using 2 NICs and a crossover cable (can't afford a hub right now....).  I've been using Linux for about 3 years and am heppy with a text editor - don't necessarily need fancy GUI's to confgure, but have no practical networking experience.  Can anyone suggest a good guide/howto?  Any hints/tips?
> I'd like to set up Samba (never done it before) so that the dual boot machine can access the web (dial -up - should I use diald?  or is there another way for this machine to initiate a connection) and printers through the Linux only machine - and possibly programs/drive space on this machine - but that can come later.  I'd also like to be able to do this both from windows and Linux - preffereably with all connections between machines being automatic at boot.

Samba has nothing to do with the Windows machine accessing the web.  It
does file and print sharing.  I would recommend samba swat for easy
setup, but I've never used webmin-samba so I can't compare.  The only
setting with swat that you need to be particularly aware of is to make
sure that `encrypt passwords' is yes (the default is no), otherwise
Win98 (I'm assuming 98 here, although you don't specify which version of
Linux or Windows you are using!) will not be able to authenticate with
its default settings.

>   More specifically, what IP addresses should I use - will they cause problems with an IP being assigned when accessing my ISP - how do I specify these?  What do I do about hostnames/host allow etc?  Are there pitfalls with Samba - is this the way I should go?  Will my network be secure (the only outside access should be via dial-up)? etc etc.

Personally, I would suggest getting a hub (a 4 port 10MB hub should be
fairly cheap, even cheaper second hand) and picking up an old 486 from
the Hymans Autions for around $20 or less, (although you would need to
check what UART it has) and install Smoothwall on it. 
(http://www.smoothwall.org)  In fact, I know that several departments at
the ANU have been giving 486's away just to get rid of them.

Rasjid.