New to Linux AND networking...

[allen.panther 0]

I have two systems that I am trying to set up as a LAN. Figured out how to install Linux on both...no sweat, and I'm very impressed with the look, the feel and the ease with which it installed. Figured out ISOs and .imgs..RedHat 9. Feels great to leave Windows behind.

My faster system I have been trying to set up as the server, and my older, slower system as a client. My problem is that I am so new to Linux, AND I am not at all experienced with networking, either. Both systems can access the internet through my cable modem seprarately, but they don't 'see' each other.

Maybe I am trying to do the impossible...connected my preferred system to the cable modem through the USB on the motherboard, and plugged the older system, through etherlink, into the etherlink card in my new system. Will this not work...or do I need a router...?

This is probably going to be your 'stupid question of the day', but I have been reading some of the other postings here, and they, too, seem amateurish so I thought I'd just swallow my pride, whimper and ask for directions. Any URLs to furhter my knowledge, or specific advice would be appreciated. -Allen

[Dapper Dan 0]

Allen don't ever feel intimidated about asking for help with Linux. There is no other way to find things out except to google and ask! There are many things I don't know about Linux, but this is an area I know a little about. I don't know if your machines will talk to each other in the way you are describing. I have a similar setup to what I think you are trying to do, and this is my setup. My "server" machine is a Dimension 4550, and my "client" machine is an old Pentium 3 which is about 60 feet away. I'm using a Linksys wireless "G" router. the two boxes are wired and the wireless is for my wife's laptop which runs Morphix-Gnome 4.1.

How are you trying to get the two machines to "talk" to each other? ftp? telnet? ssh?

My boxes communicate via ssh which I think is the all around best way to go.

 

Whichever you choose, you must have the client and server software on both machines if you want two way communication. If ssh you need openssh server and client installed on both machines.

 

Let's say you assign your "server" a local ip of 192.168.1.101, and the other box is 192.168.1.102.

 

from the client, just go:

 

ssh allen(at)192.168.1.101, (of course an @ where (at) is..) and it should establish connection.

it will ask for allens' password to that machine. You enter that, and you're in.

If you're interested in file transfer, and want to transfer a file from 101 to 102, once in the 101 box, cd to the directory that contains the file you want to transfer and go something like:

 

scp fileneame allen2(at)192.168.1.102:/home/allen2/documents

 

scp is a secure way to transfer, but I usually use [ftp]. There's a real nice ftp file transfer front end called krusader that will bring up files from one box on one side of the screen and files from the other box on the other side. Then you can drag and drop files from one box to the other.

I can be more specific about any of this if you see anything I've written here that interest you..

[PC-Janitor 0]

Hi, I've been doing similar things recently, rather than throw my old machine out, I've been determined to make use of the old one as much as possible...

 

The best solution I've come across so far is the Linux Terminal Server Project http://www.ltsp.org, but to make it easy, you should look at the high-school teacher oriented K12LTSP http://www.k12ltsp.org project which offers a regular Fedora Distribution (3-4 disks that can be downloaded as ISO's) and in the setup pages there is an extra option for installing a network server offering services to satellite machines. This of course is suitable for the majority of home users too, I guess a home version would only need a name change!

 

It took a little bit of setting up and some reading, but I was upgrading from Red-Hat 9 anyway. Both machines now behave pretty much the same, the slow one is still slower, but while there is sometimes a noticable lag (there are a few things to tweek still) I can continue with most of my usual jobs, while my son fires away with Frozen Bubble or Bob the Builder's website(flash) using the faster machine. This means I don't have to FTP files around, and if I really want to and only if I'm set up to use SSH, I can log in as root, which I suppose I might do if my three year old is being a bit crazy while I attempt to rebuild the kernel.

 

The distro is solid enough and with apt-get and Synaptic is appropriate for beginners. I have just downloaded a recent build of Wine http://www.linuxcompatible.org/story24516.html

and need to get hold of Webmin http://www.webmin.com which I tend to use for most things, even writing ISO's to disk - I shouldn't be so lazy!

 

P.S. also tried clusterKnoppix http://bofh.be/clusterknoppix/ where you bung a CD in your server machine and then the client (if it has the right nuts and bolts) will boot over the network off of the server and become part of the processor - ie: build a cluster see http://www.mosix.org/ Mosix for more information - may be a bit advanced in this instance.

 

Oh and back to your other question Allen,

 

...connected my preferred system to the cable modem through the USB on the motherboard, and plugged the older system, through etherlink, into the etherlink card in my new system. Will this not work...or do I need a router...?

 

LTSP if you choose it will by default set up two networks eth0 and eth1, Eth0 would be your connection to the outside world, change this in the network configuration to something like /dev/usb/SO4(or a symlink to /dev/usb/modem) and the other (eth1) will be the internal, trusted ethernet connection to the client, normally the first one of these is called eth0. I have absolutely no experience with a cable modem, (although I'm happy to note that downloading 3-4 ISO's should be a breeze ) however in your Gnome menu there may well be an internet connection setup link or network configuration script which should enable you to configure both of these connections.

 

You shouldn't need a router, but you will need to make sure that you are using a crossover cable instead, (bit fiddly to make your own, I found about three different options and had no good connections until I used a router.) and you can buy very cheap routers these days - check out http://www.ebuyer.com

 

I hope that helps and my appologies if it covers stuff you already know.

 

All the best,

Jon.