I have a p2, 333, with linux, and two other pc's with windows, I have a total of 4 nic cards, I want to install two nic cards in the Linux, and network the other two pc's through the linux to the internet.

However, I can only have one of the nic cards in the linux at a time, They all three work when there by them selfves in the p2. when I put the second card in the linux, neither one works. ( at this time I only have one cord.), but moving the cord to the other card does not allow me to connect to it. So if I have my 100mbs card installed and working, then shut down, and install the second card (plug it in), the first card stops working.. if I switch the cable, the second card still does not work, If I remove the card that was working and reboot the second card starts working???

Is there a link on setting up both cards to work at the same time,
All three cards are different cards.

Also see my other post about getting a belkin wireless usb to connect to the internet with linux.

Not sure what you want to do but you might have a look at clarkconnect.com....turns your old box into a gateway.

Cheers

I want to do whats best. I mean I have two old P2's and one 3 year old laptop, (not that great), I have one wireless usb adapter, laptop has windows, and linux is on the faster of the old p2's.

I cant get the belkin usb to work with just linux??

In the end I would like to set the linux up like a host or something and use the other two pc's to connect through it.
Using linux as a firewall or something I really dont know any ideas?

No matter what i decide to do it will be for educational reasons only.. as surfing the internet is all anyone ever does around here with the other two pc's.

Thanks for the link I will check it out...

Hi
u should use ip address,dns and getway provided by ur isp in one nic card n do't use getway n dns in other nic card which u want to use local for other machines.It may help u.

Install Linux
Install Firestarter firewall
Check Internet Connection sharing box in Firestarter config,..

Has to be the fastest and easiest way to configure a linux box to share internet..
http://www.fs-security.com/docs/connection-sharing.php

Perhaps thats why it wont work, I am trying to use a direct cable to connect all three computers.

I do not have a hub?? I made a crossover cable, from a rj45 cable. Is it possible to run a network like this?


P2 linux to internet,

Laptop with a crossover cable connected to the P2,
desktop with a crossover connected to the p2.

How would I configure the linux to act as a hub for the other two pc's. giving all three internet access?

I have a similar setup with 3 ethernet adapters (2 LAN, 1 Internet) and 1 wireless adapter. So my server/desktop is acting as a gateway for upto 2 wired clients and god knows how many wireless clients .

There is no easy way to do this, but what you need do is:

Setup a static IP addresses on your Linux gateway's both network adapters

Setup static IP addresses on all client computers and set them to use the IP of the Linux gateway as default gateway

Setup Linux to do IP masquerading so that it forwards anything it gets from the LAN NICs to the Internet. You can 't do this with firestarter because it only allows one internal and one external network adapter. You could use fwbuilder to create a suitable iptables script, but it needs some (not much) knowledge of packet filtering. You could also buy a ethernet hub, connect it to the gateway and then use firestarter to configure the IP Masquerading. That way you'd have only one internal and one external interface and firestarter would be an ok choise.

Check out my page (Wireless AP howto): you might find it (somewhat) useful:

http://users.utu.fi/sjsepp/atheros_ap/atheros_ap.html