[SWLUG] Connecting multiple PCs

[Peter Joseph]

On Mon, 2004-02-02 at 12:52, Rhys Sage wrote:

> 
> My dislike of hubs stems from the fact that the host
> line might be 100Mbps but each of the slaves is
> limited to 10Mbps. What I'd like to do is to run 3 x
> 100Mbps lines.

I can certainly understand your desire to run 3 x 100mpbs lines. However
even if it were not for the cheap availbillity of switches, a hub would
still be more than ample for the home network setup. I am running a hub
which supports 100mpbs connections, however since it is not a switch
bandwidth to each machine is not assured (it is shared), it doesnt LIMIT
the 'slaves' to 10mpbs. Also since you are dialing up a connection also
your not really going to be hammering any ethernet bandwidth with high
speed internet transfers over your lan to your gateway/server
arrangement. Even with 1mbps broadband thats still only 10% of my worst
possible available ethernet bandwidth. 

> 
> I might consider changing from SME to Mandrake if it's
> secure and can be used as a non-GUI mode.

Why not consider Debian Woody, all the stuff you need to do you routing,
dialing up, cups (for printers), samba for windows shares etc..and you
dont need to install X. 

> 
> I have used Mandrake as a desktop and found it quite
> pleasant. Not quite as nice to use as XP but not bad.
> How does it handle as a server?

oxymoron detected (XP and nice) 
I dont think Mandrake is an ideal choice for a server from my point of
view, it seems to be put together to be a desktop Linux Distro.

> 
> My plan now that there will be multiple PCs in use is
> to network the 2 main PCs through the server - which
> will handle dial-up, printers and supplamentary
> storage.

Do you mean connect them directly to a server machine? without the use
of a hub/switch? Not really an ideal solution, just plug all your
machines into a hub or switch and off you go. Networking them through a
server machine will mean that your server machine will need more network
cards and be dedicated to routing 24/7. 

 Obviously, it'll have to be ultra secure and
> work well within the confines of limited Linux knowledge.

How secure? the only ultra security your going to get is by not running
a machine connected to an external network (ie : internet) and by
bolting your machine into a steel cage :D

Peter


-- 
Peter Joseph   598454F1                      Debian GNU/Linux Maintainer
kneecaps at shockpulse.co.uk                          kneecaps at debian.org
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   "If there were no god, we would have to invent him." - Voltaire