I just started my first home network, and feeling kinda proud of myself now

I just set up an old AMD K6 computer as my firewall/router by using SmoothWall (anyone else try this program?). Right now, the only other computer hooked up to the old K6 box is my regular Windows XP computer. Later on today, I plan on buying another NIC and a 10 meter length of crossover cable so I can hook up my other computer that is running Mandrake Linux. Hopefully by the end of today I should have a 3 computer network running in my apartment.

** Sorry about this, I know setting up a network isnt all that hard, however it is my first home network, and I very excited about it **

Posted by HairyTheTaco I just started my first home network, and feeling kinda proud of myself now I just set up an old AMD K6 computer as my firewall/router by using SmoothWall (anyone else try this program?). Right now, the only other computer hooked up to the old K6 box is my regular Windows XP computer. Later on today, I plan on buying another NIC and a 10 meter length of crossover cable so I can hook up my other computer that is running Mandrake Linux. Hopefully by the end of today I should have a 3 computer network running in my apartment. ** Sorry about this, I know setting up a network isnt all that hard, however it is my first home network, and I very excited about it **

Nice man, I had a hell opf a time setting up my network but I managed to do it. Im pretty happy with what I just did myself, bought a circa 1977 beige rotary phone that was refurbed to use TouchTone in 1989. Its a wicked little thing.

SmoothWall, eh?

www.ipcop.org

I find this the same, yet better...

Posted by Beryl SmoothWall, eh? www.ipcop.org I find this the same, yet better...

I might try that out. Maybe if I find another old computer, I will set it up as a firewall box for my SmoothWall firewall box! -joke

Actually I might try out that program you suggested after I get familiar with SmoothWall first. So far I'm pretty happy with Smoothwall at its incredible ease of installation and administration, however I have only been using it for 2 hours so far, so its too early for me to say how good the program is yet.

For anyone that plans on buying a router, take a look at ether SmoothWall or the site Beryl suggested. All you need is an old computer and a few extra network cards laying around, and you can build your own router for free. I'm guessing most of you know of these programs already, however I didnt even know of them until just a few days ago. Im guessing there has to be a few of you guys out there that are interested in setting up a small home network but dont want to buy a router.



PS. I should warn you guys about one thing that has caused me a lot of grief. Some cable modems *remember* the MAC of the network card that is hooked up to it. With these modems, they will ignore any other NIC with a different MAC address that you try to plug in. For my cable modem (Joohong Superling 2810), I actually had to unplug it for a few hours before I plugged it in to my other network card for it to work, that way it would give it enough time for it to clear the old MAC address from its memory.

Nice! I remember first trying to set up my own router a few years ago and it was pain in the ass. Now I just use a regular router and some switches down the line. It's GB LAN and 802.11g/b so I'm happy.

I've got an old K6-2 computer kicking around as well. It needs a couple things though, so its currently just sitting around. I was going to network it with my much better computer, or start some kind of gaming server with it and throw a Linux distro on it.

No networks in this house yet however. Probably soon though. Good job on yours

I also have a K-6, I could use for a firewall, My network switch already has a hardware firewall though.