Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with homenetwork

Docking stations and KVM switches and Synergy, oh my

ook — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:37:10 -0800

For years I've been doing all my work and a good percentage of my play on a single as-overpowered-as-possible desktop box. For a variety of reasons -- not least that I'm starting to give up hope that the Mac Pro line will ever be updated again -- I'm considering making the switch to several smaller, task-dedicated machines. I am going in circles trying to figure out how best to make them all work together on a hardware level -- I can't decide if I need a docking station or a KVM switch or both or neither, and if I do need them which ones should I get? Help me, hardware geeks! What I have:
* A by now very outdated (2007) Mac Pro Mac with all four drive bays full
* An even more outdated (circa 2005), pre-thunderbolt but still perfectly functional 30" Cinema Display

Where I (think I) want to end up:
* An always-on mac mini, which will serve as a media server, first line of spam filtering, local webserver, and host for backups, to which I'll want to attach the hard drives I'll pull from
* the Mac Pro, which becomes primarily a windows/bootcamp gaming machine, but whose keyboard and monitor I will also want to have available to the
* new Mac Laptop Of Some Sort which will be my primary work and travel machine. When I'm using this at home I'd like the 30" display to act as a secondary monitor for the laptop.

So -- if this were your setup, how would you get from here to there?

Obviously I need some hard drive enclosures to move my current internal drives over to the mini; is this a situation where it matters what i get, or will anything do?

The other tricky bit is dealing with the monitor / keyboard / mouse situation. The mini can run headless most of the time, except for those times when it can't. Keyboard and mouse will need to be able to regularly switch between the mac pro and the laptop, and at least occasionally to the mini for reboots and configuration... should I be looking at docking stations? KVM switches? Some combination of the two? Or is there a software solution I ought to look into instead? (f'rinstance could I pair a bluetooth keyboard with multiple machines and somehow switch between them as needed? Or would that be dumb?) Is there some obviously superior setup that I'm overlooking?

Convenience and smooth operation is much more important to me than cost savings; I don't want to have to fiddle around under the desk plugging and unplugging cables every time I want to hook up the laptop to the monitor, etc., and if I can spend a few hundred extra bucks to have it all Just Work I will more than happily spend those few hundred extra bucks.

(Just to preempt any suggestions to this effect, I am not interested in switching to Windows or Linux.)

need help investigating slow Linux home LAN

xbonesgt — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:25:39 -0800

Why are file transfers between PCs on my home network so slow when I can download stuff from the internet way faster? I'm a developer, not an IT guy; I don't even know where to start looking to figure this stuff out. Details below - My home network consists of one Ubuntu 12.10 laptop and one Ubuntu 12.04 HTPC/file server/etc. The laptop connects to my LAN over 802.11n, and the PC over GigE. The router is an Asus RT-N66U. I have no problems accessing the internet from either machine; download speeds are fine on both according to speedtest.net . The problem is that it is agonizingly slow to access the PC from the laptop.

I've got the PC set up to export a directory over CIFS, so I can mount it on the laptop and get to my music and photos. Reading from or writing to this directory takes ages. It takes ten seconds to list the contents of a directory from a command line, and it takes 5-6 seconds to open a ~4MB image in GIMP. I suspect I've got smbd configured incorrectly, but then again I had the same problems when I had everything set up using NFS, but then again I might have set that up incorrectly too. This isn't a new problem for me, so I don't think it's the result of any recent software updates.

Any ideas on where to start digging? thanks!

Network switch can't access internet behind router

Pantengliopoli — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:01:41 -0800

Why can't devices on my new 8-port switch get internet access on my network? I’ve got a new wired network set up in my house and am fine tuning it, getting everything to connect to the internet… Main computer and xbox are working (connected directly to D-Link DGL4300 Wireless router), but the Tivo and anything plugged into the new switch-based jacks aren’t getting to the internet, though they see the network. Here’s the network layout:

Comcast Cable --> Cable modem --> Router --> Trendnet Gigabit 8-port switch wired from router in upstairs bedroom to the termination point for all wiring in the downstairs closet, where the switch is located.

That switch feeds plugs in the kitchen (1), downstairs bedroom (1), TV room (2), upstairs bedroom (1).

Basically, every plug that comes off of that switch can see the network, but cannot connect to the internet. The Tivo’s network test says that it can’t find the DHCP server. Plugging the laptop directly into the router works fine, as does connecting via wireless.

I've reset the configuration on my router to factory defaults, with no change. All new wiring tests okay. I have shut down everything and brought it all back up from the cable downstream to the devices, with no change. I was able to get the Tivo connected to the internet briefly, after a modem reboot, but then the main computer/router etc wouldn't connect.

Are there specific configuration changes I need to make on my router to allow a downstream switch? What am I missing?

Is it safe?

DarkForest — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:45:55 -0800

Yesterday I added a network print server device to my home network. How can I know that it is secure? Can I firewall it to prevent it from sending anything out to the internet? A few more details inside. I bought this no-brand print server device and hooked it up yesterday. It's working fine. I have no particular reason to distrust it, but OTOH, I'm not sure I should blindly trust it either. I think it can see all the activity on my home network if it chose to do so (router experts can correct me here if I'm wrong). If so, it could be potentially be harvesting passwords or cookies, etc. and sending them out somewhere on the internet.

I'm on a DSL connection and have a fairly crappy old westell modem/router with a custom UI added by my ISP. I don't think the modem has detailed controls that would allow me to firewall off this device from the internet. If it was doing something evil, it could probably forge packets anyway that would get past the firewall.

This is all most likely just excess paranoia and it's probably fine. But are there any steps I could take to be sure? Perhaps in the future I should think twice about buying no-name IP devices. Thanks in advance.

Network All the Things!

backseatpilot — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:23:40 -0800

I finished the half-assed ethernet setup we inherited with our new place. Now tell me everything I can plug into it. I went a little overboard and there's a lot of excess capacity in the system - 24 ports total (as soon as Amazon replaces the defective switch they sent me), and currently only my desktop computer and the XBox360 are plugged in. There are eight ports in the office that I reused (turns out they were all stapled into the wall and run through the attic, which I don't have access to), two ports in the living room (one for the XBox), and the rest are currently unterminated. There are lots of existing holes drilled in to the floors for old telephone/coax lines that were removed some time ago, so it should be trivially easy to add an ethernet box anywhere in the house.

What can I add to our home to have the awesomest in home audio/video/automation/you name it? I have the following wish list already, so I'd like recommendations for these functions in particular plus any other goodies I might be missing:

-Audio everywhere. We use a combination of Spotify and Pandora mostly, plus some local media. There's an existing 5.1 system to tap into in the living room, but I also want audio in the kitchen and the back yard. Multiple zones would be nice (so someone can watch TV and whoever's cooking dinner can still listen to tunes).
-Streaming video. The XBox has been good for Netflix, but having cut cable with the move I'd like to include more services. A Roku, Boxee, or something similar is on the list. It should also support...
-NAS/Torrent Box. What's the best way to handle this? Out-of-the-box NAS and torrenting handled by my desktop? Separate home server?

What else can I add to the home? Electronic door locks? Video cameras? Automatic food dish for the cats? Light timers? Skynet? Throw it all at me!

AT&T U-Verse Set Up

NoMich — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:06:47 -0800

AT&T U-Verse internet set up help needed. Reading the quick set up guide provided by AT&T is not really helping. With my current TimeWarner Roadrunner set up, I have the cable from the outside world running into my Roadrunner modem then going into my Ooma device then going into my wireless router. I have my laptop, netbook and desktop glomming bandwidth wirelessly and have my Blu-Ray device physically hooked up to the wireless router. Can I just have my U-Verse hooked up the same way?

How do I turn a USB 2.0 external drive into a network drive?

docgonzo — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 13:53:44 -0800

How do I create (not mount) network drives in OS X? Just moved into a new house and I'm setting up my home network. I have the usual cable modem to wireless router setup; the wrinkle is that I have three USB 2.0 external harddrives I'd like to each make into a network drive, i.e., mountable and read/writeable by the two Macs that will use the network. The router has four ethernet ports available and the drives are currently connected to one Mac using a four-port USB 2.0 hub. My google-fu and ancient networking (OS 8.0) skills have failed! I have a five year-old MacBook (10.4) that I can contribute to the cause to act as a server. Thanks for any help!

Two WRT54G routers - Am I doing this right?

caution live frogs — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:29:35 -0800

Optimizing my home network, using a pair of Linksys WRT54G wireless routers + Tomato. Best practices? Home wired + wireless network. Two WRT54G wireless routers, both running the latest Tomato build:

First WRT54G (v.1) in the basement, running DHCP. Printer and home computer plugged in to this router via Cat5.

Second WRT54G (v.3) is upstairs, connected to the first router by Cat5, with wireless on but DHCP disabled. HD TiVo plugged in via Cat5.

Both routers are configured to run as access points plus WDS. Both routers set to use WEP security (because the wireless adapter for our older Series 2 TiVo can't handle anything else). Same SSID, same passphrases, same channel.

As far as I can tell everything is working correctly - but the wireless strength seems to be less than I expected. Our older TiVo for example has a really weak signal. I'm wondering if the routers are too close together - it's a small house, and I doubt the Cat5 cable between the routers is longer than 50 feet - would that cause a problem? iStumbler sees them both, but for some reason only shows security on one of the routers (the other is listed as "open"). Additionally, I have an auto-sensing program on my Mac (MarcoPolo) that determines location based on things like SSID, and since adding the second router it flakes out every minute or so, switching my location back and forth, which is really annoying. Is this possibly a result of a bad setup, interference, or just my computer being handed off between routers? Like I said, things seem like they're working; all the devices are connecting (iPhones, TiVos, Wii) but they aren't all getting the signal strength I expected. Quality of connection is ranging between 25-50, for devices within just a few feet of the router(s).

I'm even starting to wonder if I need to enable WDS at all for this to work. From what I can tell, WDS is usually used when the routers are NOT connected to each other, but I want them to stay wired (speed matters, especially for Netflix streaming to the HD TiVo). Any suggestions?

Best way to marry my hard drive to my TV

Billegible — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:45:19 -0800

Is XBMC on an XBox still the best solution for playing home network media on my TV? I work from home and generally keep movies running on the TV all day (keeps my inner distractable imp distracted while the rest of me gets work done). This is probably why my DVD players have an average lifespan of less than a year, and I'm tired of buying new ones.
I'm looking to find a way to hook up my media-rich external drive to my TV so I can play stuff from there instead of the DVD player, at least sometimes.
I found this AskMe question from 2007 recommending modding an XBox, but two years is a long time in tech innovation, so I want to know if this is still the best way to go or has something better emerged form the primordial pixelated ooze since then? I've been seeing DVD players with USB ports, for example, but I'm not sure how those players would deal with various media formats (.avi, .iso, .mpg etc.)
I have an old, pre-HDTV TV that is still very nice, a low-end Sony DVD player (no USB port), a wii and a PS2, if any of those are of use.

Create a wireless bridge in my house

jasondbarr — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:53:59 -0800

What's the best way to bridge two wired networks within a home, wirelessly? So this question has been asked before, but it's been a couple of years, and I know this stuff goes out of date quickly. Is the advice in the prior AskMe still valid, or are there better ways to do it? I have a wifi connection point in my home (wireless cable modem), and would like to get a piece of equipment to recieve that signal and allow me to hard-wire into it with some game consoles, a Roku box, filesharing server, etc. Sometimes, I need to be able to have a wired connection on these devices (for instance, if I'm installing a new OS that will require me to have an internet connection before I have drivers for wireless cards) but don't have the inclination to move them.

BTW, forgive the terminology if I'm using some of it wrong. Feel free to correct me. :) Thanks.

Sharing Windows computers on a home network

lunchbox — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:54:59 -0800

What's the best way for two people to collaborate on their Windows computers that are on the same home network? My parents work together at home. One has a Vista computer and the other has XP, both with Office Ultimate 2007. Their work is tightly integrated, and they have no information that needs to be kept separate. Ideally, it would be great if both computers shared all documents, including OneNote notebooks, and "My Documents" (XP) or "Documents" (Vista) folder. In other words, the more unified and in sync the two computers are, the better.

What is the simplest way to achieve this unison? I am thinking of just putting "Documents" from the Vista computer on a network share so that it becomes the de facto "My Documents" for the XP computer. But I am concerned that this will not be a seamless experience for the person on the XP computer. Also, since OneNote will always be open on both computers, there might be some file locking issues. It would be great if these OneNote notebooks could be shared so that they could be open on both computers at the same time.

I have access to SharePoint, Groove, and several other groupware applications. What's the simplest and best solution to unify these two computers?

Help me show him the truth

arniec — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:15:16 -0800

Help me convince my friend of a basic networking truth. He sent me an e-mail saying he was assigning static IPs to all the devices on his home network so the signal would be stronger. More details inside: My friend has the following set-up: His cable modem goes to his router. His router feeds wall jacks throughout his house. In his basement is a single CAT-5 wall jack, but since he has several devices there he got a switch, so the wall jack goes to the switch, which then goes to his DirectTV and his XBox 360.

This worked fine in this set-up for months. But a couple weeks ago he stopped being able to receive On Demand programming. If he plugs the DirectTV right into the wall jack it works, but through the switch it does not.

He then assigned his DirectTV and his XBox 360 static IPs and the On Demand programming worked through the switch.

He believes the switch is causing weaker signal and the static IP is strengthening the signal to his DirectTV which, as an IT network tech, I know is NOT the case. And I've told him this but I cannot convince him that it's not a signal issue since he has seen the "evidence" that a static IP fixed the On Demand issue that a static IP didn't.

So (a) why would his DirectTV not work through a switch with a dynamic IP and (b) How can I explain in complete laymen's terms the fundamental networking essentials concepts of digital signal transmission through shielded twisted pair cable is NOT effected by the IP addresses being static or dynamic?

Stupid WiFi security snafu I'm wasting my question on this week.

allkindsoftime — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:28:52 -0800

Home WiFi network security-filter. I set up my security using WPA and now my home computer won't connect to the network. Please talk to the moron in small words. It's your basic D-Link wireless routher, and I'm connected and surfing freely via my work laptop that I'm typing from. When I bring up the wireless connection it says its WPA2.

Home computer (running Windows XP 2002 service pack 1) can see the network but won't connect. When I bring up the connection window it says "This wireless network requires the use of a network key (WEP)." Problem is I didn't enable WEP, only WPA. When I go to the network properties it only gives me the WEP options (checkboxes for Data encryption, Network authentication) - still nothing WPA related.

Is this an issue with my version of windows? If so, is there a way around it? If not, any other ideas?

Too dumb to figure out VPN on DD-WRT

billtron — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:40:40 -0800

VPNFilter: I like my home network, but I want to access it outside of my home. How do I set up my WRT54GL running DD-WRT v23 SP2 to do that? Versions of this question have been asked on metafilter zillions of times, but I haven't found an answer that I understand because of my tiny brain.

The specific desires:
>Wake on LAN for home computer, running XP
>Remote access and manipulation of files on home computer
>Possibly secure tunneling using SSH, although I assume this will in part be a side product of everything else; I don't need this yet but would like to have it in case I am using some shady wireless access point in the future.
>What other cool things could I do with my setup?

I know about Hamachi, but from what I can tell using DD-WRT makes Hamachi unnecessary. Is this true?

my simple two computer network stopped working and I don't know why, do you?

Grod — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:41:58 -0800

I use to have a home network and now I don't. Why? Google turns up many similar problems and a few answers but no solution that works for me. Two computers running windows XP pro connect to the internet through a residential gateway [computers ----> workgroup switch ----> residential gateway ----> dsl ---> world]. I put both computers in the same work group, enabled simple file sharing, made 'my documents' on one shared and could read/write from the other. Then one day I couldn't and nothing I've done, re-sharing the directory, running the network wizard and using a different work group name, enabling/disabling the firewall, nothing has restored the ease of access, or any access, instead I'm told "\\computerName-35cbba is not accessible. You might not have permission to use the network resource. Contact the administrator of the server to find out if you access permissions. Access is denied." To which I say arrrrgh. Anyone know what's happening here, and why, and how to fix it? Thanks.

My Wife And I Want To Shoot Each Other

grumblebee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:00:43 -0800

Help me shoot my wife: suggest a first-person shooter we can play against each other. I'm on a Mac (pentium macbook pro); She's on a PC (about four years old, without the latest and greatest graphics card). We have a home network. We were thinking it would be fun to play virtual laser tag. The ideal game would be really simple. I'd try to shoot her; she'd try to shoot me. There's be obstacles (walls, whatever) that we could hide behind.

Neither of us is a very experienced gamer, so I'd love a game that doesn't involve a million keystrokes and a 300-page manual to read. Just shoot and try to avoid being shot.

We probably won't play this with other people. Just the two of us.

Home Network & WiFi Configuration

me3dia — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:39:55 -0800

Home Network Question: Help me choose the right router and network configuration for my needs. Our Netgear 802.11b router just died, so we're in the market for a new one. However, we have a couple of concerns.

1. We've been talking about moving up to 802.11g, but my partner's G3 iBook won't be able to connect to it. She plans on getting a new computer early next year, but until then, we still need that computer to connect. If we get a "g" router that claims "b" cards can still connect, will that really be the case? Will we need to adjust configuration in some way?

2. We'd like to network our printer and an external hard drive over the router. What's the best way to do this?

computermuch?

saysthis — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:43:55 -0800

Up in ur antique pc's optimizin ur network. I, a previously porn-surfing net monkey whose "kit" was a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop (a retard's computer if there ever was one), have through recent endowments of hardware and employment opportunities, become the proud new owner of a fleet of slightly antiquated electronics that will need to be strung together and (probably) modified and moved if I'm not going to go insane tranferring massive volumes of data from one to another. This isn't so much a tech question as a planning one - what would you do with all this stuff? How can I get the best use out of it? I have 2 desktops from...I don't know who, but both are 3-4 years old and from the Pentium 3-4 era. Both work fine. I also have my old Dell, which of late has been falling apart. It's nothing big...but everything little, like loose connections on the motherboard, a dead USB port (which means there's only one functioning one, and it can't handle devices that draw power from the laptop), and we won't even get into the overheating issues these things have. It makes it almost impossible to do anything processor-intensive. There's also a Sony Vaio T350, an ultraportable thinger 2.5 years old. That works perfectly, which is exactly what I need it to do.

But now we get to the employment duties part. I am, officially, an editor of a company publication, the content and web manager of a film distribution agent (with occasional editing and subtitling for the same), and an occasional writer/photographer, which needs editing. On top of which is my day job, language teaching, which often requires multimedia presentations and assembling things off the web for class. I'm also a classic web addict and download hog, so I have a couple of USB IDE drives I need to factor into this whole thing, and one of them is failing and the other is showing signs of failing, so those need to be replaced and will be shortly, but with SATA/IDE/Firewire/blahblahblah I honestly am clueless about how low or high I want my technology investments.

Here's how I envision it: The writing/web-presentation-assembly stuff is pretty easily delegated to the Vaio. That's the most easily portable to the couch. I'm not too keen on using that to do the sorting through hundreds of DVD's requires though, because replacing those drives isn't cheap. One of the desktops will be a dedicated straw, to which I plug in my archiving drives every day and clean out what I want and don't want. The Inspiron laptop has a desktop processor and takes desktop RAM (I think), and is for all intents and purposes a "desktop replacement", which is exactly what this class is called, and so I figure I may as well use it as such - I've got a copy of Ubuntu that I need to learn to use before XP goes completely obsolete, and which I'll need to expand to everything, so the Dell will be training wheels, as well as my intake for all the gunk I download, i.e. I'll plug it into the stereo as my mp3 player, or watch a movie on it in bed. Which leaves the other desktop as my "content" computer. To turn it into that though, I'd ideally like to wire in a TV and do a double monitor setup so I don't have to hunch over the 15-inch screen while I watch movies all day. And concurrently I'd like to be able to work on the website over the LAN while I screen these things and upload them, another task which the Vaio seems fit for.

So, what do you think? So long as any part can be had 2nd-hand, money isn't an object. Ergonomics? We're half-moved in and we've got a lot of space to move things around. Virus protection? What can I turn off and what should I leave on all the time? The only network I've ever built is setting up wifi in my old apartment, so if anyone has any suggestions, experience, ideas, I'm glad to have them.

Can I make my Airport Express into a repeater?

Duluth?! I Hardly Know Her! — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:47:00 -0800

How do I (can I?) make my Airport Express expand my wireless network? I am clueless about wifi, but I think I have the equipment to make a good home network for my TiVo and my Wii. I have a cable modem in the bedroom (back of the house) that plugs into a Buffalo WHR-G54S wireless router, which plugs directly into my iMac G5, which has an airport card. I have an Airport Express that is plugged into the wall in the middle of the house (not connected to anything other than my stereo).

Up until now, I have used the Airport Express as a way to play my iTunes music through my stereo, so I have just had it talking to my iMac's airport card and grabbing the music. I have not had it doing any kind of network function. Now, I want it to talk to my Router. I think I should be able to have my router whip the signal to the Airport Express, which will then whip it to my TiVo and my Wii. I want to do this because my router's signal is very weak for TiVo/Wii, which are on the complete other side of the house through some brick and concrete.

Can anyone help me with a straightforward way to do this? I have tried every which way of monkeying with my wireless network settings on the Mac, but I think all I am doing is changing the airport card-to-airport express settings. In the alternative, can someone tell me my Airport Express is not an appropriate tool for the job I am asking of it, so I know to quit wasting my time trying to fit a square airport express into a round wireless expander-thingee job?

I thank you.

Once you go Mac...

cosmicbandito — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:23:13 -0800

What cool things can I do with a G4 Imac in the dining room besides music and picture slide shows? I scored a G4 Imac (800 Mhz, OSX Tiger) cheap. I have it set up in my dining room. I plan to use it for music/ spur of the moment web surfing. I'm also interested in setting up photo slideshows and using dashboard to have weather and news stuff constantly updating. What other key functions can I have it take of?

Why does my wireless hub signal degrade throughout the day?

Hypnic jerk — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:14:46 -0800

Why does the signal and connectivity on my wireless router degrade and improve throughout the day? I have a Linksys Wireless G router daisy chained to an Apple AirPort on another floor that is wired directly to my cable modem. I have a couple of PC's linked to the LinkSys, as well as a couple of TiVo boxes. I have good wireless security enabled, and live in a reasonably remote location, so no one else is accessing it. I have been working from home a bit lately, and have noticed that my signal will degrade throughout the course of the day, sometimes improve, sometimes disappear and then reappear again in full force regardless of my level of internet activity.

Why does this happen? Is this normal? Have I not configured it correctly? Or do these things pursue mystical cyclical patterns throughout the day?

Inquiring minds need to know. It's not the worst thing in the world when it goes away, as I can always access the weaker airport signal in the basement, but it indicates to me that I have done something wrong. Can anyone help?

How to configure second router as acces point?

psmealey — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:42:20 -0800

How do I configure a second wireless router as a wireless access point, and have computers on both routers talk to each other? I have an Apple Airport base station in my basement office hooked up to my cable modem. It is configured with DHCP. Due to the amount of stone and what not in the construction of the house, the wireless signal dissipates rapidly as you come upstairs, I bought a Linksys WRT54G to plug in Airport, connect via ethernet and extend my network.

Only issue is I forgot how to configure it such that the computers on the Aiport zone can talk to the computers upstairs on the WRT54G zone. Any help? Unfortunately, user documentation was a bit too dense (as am I) to figure it out, and I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for when Googling.

When I try to configure the Linksys as a router (and not gateway) it asks me for both a Default Gateway IP (which should be the 10.0.1.1 address of the Airport, right?) and a destination LAN IP (which I don't get, because my Airport is on DHCP). Can you someone help point me in the right direction?

Help me choose a file server OS

humuhumu — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 10:35:34 -0800

Home network consists of two XP machines, an OSX laptop, and an Ubuntu laptop. Have just been given an old PIII to use as a file server. What OS should the file server run and what should I use to format the disks?

Expanding the home network

Fezboy! — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 15:19:30 -0800

This is probably an embarassingly easy question to answer, but when it comes to networking, I'm clueless. Can I use static IP + DHCP on same network using two routers—one wired/one wireless? I have a DSL connection with five (way too expensive) sticky/static IP addresses. I use the SBC-supplied DSL modem as a straight-through router. Three Linux boxes (two servers, one desktop) connect via the DSL modem/router, each claiming a static IP. That leaves one port on the DSL router and two IP addys.

I have recently picked up an iBook and, while I can hook up to that remaining port on the DSL modem/router, I'd like to do the wireless thing instead. I'd also like to do this using DHCP instead of assigning the laptop a static IP. I'm also getting to a point where just handing out IP addys to my collection of toys isn't going to work. it's a very nice problem to have and I'm definitely not complaining

Basically, can I conenct a wireless router into the remaining port on the DSL modem and configure it such that it runs a DHCP service while the other three connections still use the straight-through, static IP setup? Will the wireless router require one of the static IPs or can it just refer to the gateway IP?

BTW: I've looked into using one of the Linux boxes as a wireless DHCP service via a wireless PCI card but that looked exceedingly tedious, even for Gentoo. I'm sort of hoping this is the quick and easy answer to my problem.

How do I set up a server at home?

dirtynumbangelboy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:43:55 -0800

ServerFilter: How do I set up a server at home? I have no idea where to start looking, so help me please! I have access to an old Pentium (probably vintage 2000 or so), with a 40gb hard drive with something like 192mb of RAM. It's a Pentium.

I'd like to do one of two things with it:

1) Turn it into our gateway to the internet. The materials I have on hand for that are three recent generation Pentiums (to be connected to it) and a pretty decent 4-port router. The computer itself has two ethernet ports, one on the motherboard and one card, though there seem to be some sort of intermittent conflicts between the card (provided by Shaw Cable) and the motherboard.

2) Simply use it as a file server for music/etc for everyone in my apartment.

1 is preferable to 2 (since 1 includes 2). I have access to a legit Win98 install (the computer isn't powerful enough to support XP), but I'd prefer to use some sort of easy Linux distro to do this.

So:

What do I do? Where do I look? What Linux distros should I look at? (Let's assume, correctly, that I like Linux but tend to get really sketchy around command-line manipulation of...stuff. I was raised on Mac, and really like point-and-click whenever possible).

Ideally, I'd like to also be able to use this computer as a webserver in the future, should any of us decide for some reason that we want a website. or possibly just email or whatever.