Hi there. I've been scouring the net and trying to get a rough idea of how this is going to work. I can't really find a decent howto / tutorial on the net so I am going to document everything I to do and put it up somewhere.
Here is the situation.
I have reluctantly volunteered to "house / pet sit" for some friends who have to take a break. They have an XP (SP2) setup ,Broadband ADSL modem and ISP AOL ( dynamic IP). Personally I do a lot of work on Linux and my box at work is also a Linux. They have a spare machine in their study on which I can run any linux live CD ( I intend to use either knoppix or slax ).
I want this spare machine, running the live linux CD to use the XP internet connection as I would like to remotely display windows etc from my work machine and use a unix/linux environment in general. I don't want to install too much software on their machine ( if any). but I fear I may need to install some proxy software of some description. The spare machine will have it's own NIC and I will be using a crossover cable to connect the two machines together.




What I need help on is the actual configuration on both my Windows and Linux box as I am mostly ignorant of this form of simple networking ( although I have been using Linux / unix for many years so am not daunted by command line). This whole project will also give me a simple start on networks etc from which to expand.
The XP machine has a firewall (Zone Alarm) in place and I was wondering what other security measures would I need to take on the linux box ie. closing ports. The linux box will be used for remote login (telnet), ftp, and general surfing of the net. Don't intend to use chat etc..
As I previously said I am going to document all I do so it can be used as a tutorial for other newbies.
Thanks again.

Uncle-C

Uncle.

Do you need to use a crossover cable for some reason or could you use a switch instead? I have never used a crossover cable so I don't know the ins and outs of that method.

I haven't got a switch so I have to use the cable method. I've done some reading over lunch and if I were to use the x-over cable method would I need 2 NICs in the Internet Connected XP (the gateway) PC or could I get away with just one in each machine ?

You will definitely need two NICs regardless. In order for the Windows machine to let other computers access the internet through it, you need one NIC with your internet connection and every other computer coming in on a separate network, set up to route through to the internet.

Thanks VV. I am only going to connect one other machine to the net connected XP. So far I know I have to configure the XP machine for Internet Sharing - no problems. But with regards to the Linux box I read that I only had to set DHCP as client, set the client Gateway to that of the host (XP machine) and that my Linux would be net connected ? Surely it cannot be that simple ? Do I not have to fiddle about with any other conf files ?

If your XP is going to assign an IP address then set the Linux to DHCP. But it's probably easier to just manually create a private network for the two. Then you will need to set your DNS to the internet NIC address and the gateway to the XP IP address on the private network. It's really not that hard at all and using the Internet Connection Sharing will simplify it a lot as opposed to configuring those few options yourself.