Getting internet to all of my computers...

[CreamySoupUSA]

Alright, I have a LAN room in my house, and an Airport at the other end. I need to know the best way to get internet to all the computers in the LAN room (there are 4 now, but room for 8). So what I was thinking is just having an old 200MHz box running with a wireless adapter picking up the Airport's signal, and then hooking that up to an 8 port switch, which goes to all the other computers. If I did do it this way, would the computer have to hook up through an uplink port? Or could I just plug it into one of the normal ports? The reason being is that I'm cheap, and don't want to pay to have an uplink. If this isn't the most efficient way to do this, can someone explain what is? Thanks!

 

[ktwebb]

Only XP has a bridging function in the windows world and I don't think you'll be running XP on a 200 Mhz machine. You could try using ICS but you'll probably run into problems trying to double NAT an incoming internet connection. Linux may have a solution that fits the bill and would satisfy your "cheap" streak.

As far as the switch question. Most newer switches will have autosensing ports, which means their all uplinks if you need them to be. If not then you'll have to have a port that functions as an uplink or buy a crossover cable if there is none.

 

[Sertys]

Uplink is for cross-connection 2 switches or hubs. You can use the std ports of ur switch to connect the router. It's easy as 1-2-3 with Smoothwall. A small linux distro equipped with all you might ever need. Even SNORT and SQUID are enabled by default. 200 Mhz are the bomb with such a distro, but use as more ram as possible and find another HDD for transparent proxying the connection. You will be surprised how pleasant it is to download a windows update you previously downloaded on another PC is now d/loading with 3MB/sec Smoothie has a web interface for packet filtering, DMZ and DNAT-ing ports as needed. www.smoothwall.org

 

[CreamySoupUSA]

OK, so my switch problem is solved, but now Sertys has me thinking . If I use Smoothwall, can I use my wireless adapter (D-Link DWL 120 I think, it's just a USB 802.11b adapter)? If I can, that'll be great, but would a 3 gig hard drive do the job? that's the biggest spare one I have. One more thing, is this Smoothwall easy to configure? I'm not scared of Linux or anything, but I don't want to have to do a bunch of text based stuff or anything. Anyway, try to help out if you can. Thanks again!