Setup Questions...

[JCDyer]

I am new to linux, and am using Mandrake 9.0. I have three computers, two of which are Windows machines, the third, is the Mandrake. I am wanting to have them all hooked up to my high speed cox connections, and before I put the linux system in there, I could connect fine. Now I can not seem to connect with the linux system. My setup is something like this:
[Cable Modem]
|
[HUB]
| |
|----------- ----|
[Router] [Linux]
| |
[Win1| [Win2]

This picture did not turn out so well so here is what I planned in english:Cable modem connected to hub... One connection from hub to router and another connection from hub to linux machine... One connection from router to windows machine 1 and another connection from router to windows machine 2.

This setup does not seem to be working so good. When I start up Mandrake I get an [OK] on everything but something to do with my etho...

My hardware is a linksys cable modem(BEFCMU10), Netgear hub(EN104TP), Linksys router(BEFSR41), and the Linksys networking card(LNE100TX) in each system. Also, I want to keep the setup some way like this. I do not wish to connect the Linux machine directly to the router, although it still does not work if I do.

Would anyone have any ideas I might try to get my system working? Or maybe some places I should go check out.

[fancypiper]

Perhaps the Easy Internet Sharing NHF (http://linuxnewbie.org/nhf/Networks/Easy_Internet_Sharing.html) would have some hints.

[IsaacKuo]

With your desired setup, you need to have two different IP addresses from your Isp. For example, perhaps you want one permanent IP for your Linux machine and another IP for your Windows machines. You'll have to pay Cox extra for the extra IP address.

If you want to do this with just the one IP address, you'll have to go through the router with all 3 computers. I would recommend this, unless you have some very good reason you want two different IP addresses.

If your router only has two ports, connect the hub to the router, then you can connect all three of your computers.

If you're using the default settings, your router is probably set to dynamically give internal IP addresses by DHCP, and your Windows machines are set to DHCP. You can get your Linux machine to work by setting its ethernet adapter to DHCP.

At some point, you'll probably want to convert all your machines to static internal IP addresses. This will let you use port forwarding to your Linux box so it can be a web server or whatnot (on non-standard ports, since Cox blocks the normal ports).

[michaelk]

You didn't say wether your windows machines could access the internet or not. I thought that with cox you can have 3 dynamic IPs. The linksys router has 4 ports so you really could elliminate the hub and hook the linux machine to it. You can set up the linux machine with a DMZ ip address.

There is good information on setting up linux with a cable modem and networking in the howto's. Like the other posts said you will need to use DHCP for the linux box. And then use the gateway and proxy etc infomation that you used to setup the windows machine.

[JCDyer]

Thanks for all the great info so far, I appreciate the help. The reason I have the HUB in there is because I need the Linux machine to read all the infomartion being sent to the Router(ie... Windows machine one). If they all have their own IP then the data won't be read, would it?

The main purpose of the linux machine is just to view this data. I have a program on the Windows machine that will recieve packets of information from the internet. I need the linux machine to read these packets, and nothing more. I figured with the HUB it will send all the data to the linux machine, even though the linux machine did not request it. Letting it read the packets, like I wanted. While the Windows machine, the one recieving the information still works fine.

What would be the best way to allow this to work? Not sure if it helps, but the program I am trying to setup is SHOWEQ. While I am playing a game one my Windows machine, SHOWEQ(running on my linux machine), will decyepher the packets being sent to the windows machine, and give me maps and other such information you would normally not get.

Agian, I appreciate all the help so far. If anyone has any other advice to setup my network in this fashion I would GREATLY appreciate it.

EDIT: Also, I read on the page you sent me I have to make sure the ethernet cards are compatiable. I read that the Linksys router is, but when I was looking in another FAQ it said nothing about the Linksys nic cards... Are these compatiable also?
JCD

[michaelk]

This might help. I believe that Cox uses roadrunner.
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Cable-Modem/

[icepik]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but if you install a sniffer and put your eth0 in promiscutious (or something like that) mode, it will be able to see all the data from your network..

[JCDyer]

Very new to all this Icepick... Could you please expand on the sniffer a bit. Also, how would I configure my network... Like the example I made above, or would I go a different route?

[JCDyer]

I was told this setup might work a little better for me... What do you all think.

................[Linksys cable modem]
................................|
.....................[Linksys Router]
.......................|...................|
...............[Non SEQ]....[Netgear HUB]
.....................................|............ .....|
................................[EQ]..............[SEQ]

The SEQ is the machine I need to read the packets that are being sent to the EQ machine. The non SEQ machine is just another machine in the network that does not matter in this setup. Will I be able to setup up Mandrake 9.0 to detect the cable modem through all that? That is my main concern. Right now I can not even get it to detect my connection if I connect the linux box to my cable modem.