Hi Folks, I'm looking at the best way to impliment a home LAN with 3 machines (+ hardware firewall) running Linux and Win98 and would asppreciate a logic check or anyone's opinions. My current network is poorly done (newbie experiments) so I'd like to redo the lot properly. something like
Firewall - Old 486 running smoothwall feeding internet to my 3 work stations.. merlin4 - run's Win98 all the time. Merlin2k - Runs linux all the time (Needs HTTP, SQL & FTP server) Apollo, runs linux most of the time but boots to windows occassionally. Also occassionally a laptop on win98 or 2000. What I had thought of was to put samba on merlin4 (linux fulltime) but am unsure whether or not I need NFS as well. My good machine (Apollo) runs Linux 99% of the time but needs to boot to windows to do graphics (and flight sim :), Can a linux machine use an SMB server as a client or am I best looking at NFS as well? As for file storage, I want to use merlin2k to store my personal files and serve these out using samba(?) to the other machines as required. BUT I want to store my work files on Apollo (but have these available to the other machines as well). This may sound a bit stupid but it seems to be the best way to use my disk space effectively. I am uncertain wether Samba will allow me to do this. Firewall. I want to resurect an old 486DX as a Smoothwall firewall and internet gateway, i've read the docs and this sounds achievable. This is where I get confussed, Can I have merlin4 with a HTTP, FTP and SQL server running behind the firewall (pressumably on the green interface) and still get things out to the internet from this machine as well as locally? Apollo (the one with work files) has to be secure (storage of medical related records for work) and I only want these files available to the internal network and selected files via HTTP (on merlin2k). The next thing I would like is to have a dial-in server so I can retrieve files from work, the servfer would need to be on Merlin4 but the files would have to come from Apollo. I pressume I woud use telnet or SSH to do this and remotely access a file share, but again I am unsure :-). Merlin2k will be powered all of the time but I would like to be able to bring Apollo uip and down as needed (using Wake on LAN) once connected to merlin2k (if that makes sense. I really know very little about networking (as you can probably tell) so would appreciate any opinions on the best way to do this. Any solution will do as long as files on Apollo are secure from the internet. any help appreciated, Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
