OK - moving in an area that provides dsl so we're going to need some hardware. What hardware brand would you purchase for this network situation?

we've got two pc's both running linux. we each have our own office in the upstairs of the house. one pc per office.

already have the nic's and plenty of cat 5. but this is my first time with dsl. my wife is an editor so I need to have this thing up and running fairly quickly when the day comes (next week).

her pc is running suse 8

me debian 'woody'

we want to dsl connect to be independent of the two pc's. meaning that the sharing of the connection will not depend on one of the linux boxes doing any of the forwarding/work of the network. i want this to be a hardware setup.

like so:
http://www.pipeline.com.au/Internet/...odemrouter.png

already preparing to read through the howto's on this but any suggestions are welcomed. decided not to use wireless yet.

Honsetly, one of those dinky Linksys router boxes running NAT and dhcp and run a lot of CAT-5e accross the house. They run in the ballpark of $80 now: DSL modem in one end, 4 ports out the other.

The diagram you supplied assumes that you get a buttload of static IPs from your ISP, which is highly improbable unless you pay out the nose for them... and then usually your ISP supplies a modem that is also a 4 port switch.

Wireless can be a headache, but if you ever go with it, the WMP-11 and the Dlink DWL-520 work alright with a number of drivers. RPMS and Debs are available I think, but really just compile it all by hand is best. Make certain to avoid any dlink gear with a "+" in it, that's TI kit, a bunch of "we don't release documentation to anyone" jokers... no support.

Cheers,

Finegan

I don't see how the diagram implies that he requires so many static IPs. This type of configuration is possible with a Linksys or Dlink router performing NAT. I regularly set this up for my small business clients.

The diagram labelled the middle device as a switch or hub, last I checked they were still just dumb packet splitting hardware, they can't do NAT so in order for that to work he would be relying on multiple IPs supplied by the modem, hence the ISP.

As you pointed out this is entirely do-able with a Dlink or Linksys Router, I just didn't want him going out to get the wrong chunk of hardware.

Cheers,

Finegan