[SWLUG] Re: Ubuntu - the fixings

[Rhys Sage]

Ok. So, I have to connect to the internet. That's a
right royal PIA at the moment. The only computer in
the house connected to roadrunner is the
malfunctioning XP box. It was my intention to install
WiFi at some point. Now it looks essential if I'm to
get all these computers working! 

I have a cable modem on a broadband connection. That's
currently plugged into the back of an XP Home based HP
Pavillion. There are three other computers available
(2 of which aren't currently working but which will be
soon. One runs Ubuntu (working), one runs Windows ME
(not working) and one runs Windows 98 (not working)).
The plan is thus:

Convert one of the 9x boxes to SME Server and use that
to go between the modem and the rest of the network. 

One 9x box stays as a 9x box for the 6-y/o to play his
shoot-em-up games. 

The XP box gets fixed to work better (probably learing
all the games crud off it by reformatting. Then that
gets used for online banking etc - not my choice). 

The Ubuntu box starts out as an offline
gnucash/word-processing/photo-handling box.

The Ubuntu and XP boxes take a WiFi link to the SME
box and the SME box buffers between the internal
network and the internet. The 6-y/o box connects later
when I can be sure that access to all but cartoon
network is fully barred.

The lady of the house insists on WiFi rather than
cabling. Cabling I can do quickly, securely, easily
and cheaply. WiFi, I haven't much idea about. So, how
do I do the wifi? Do I simply put PCI wifi cards in
the PCs and a WiFi hub on the SME box and feed the
cable connection from the cable modem through the wifi
hub? Does the wifi hub stand alone? How does that part
of the network work?

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