Hi there
This is a newbie (ish) question but it is about networking so...

I have three mini-networks and I want to change part, if not all, of them over to Linux. The first change is the simplest (the others are bigger, with more implications so I'll leave them for later) - I simply want to network a P100 running Mandrake 7.2 and a Celeron 766 running W98se. I vaguely understand the connectivity issues - and imagine the P100 will need Samba. Is there anything else I need to think about? I'm (un)happy doing all of this with Windoze but I want to say adios to the Blue Screen.

Help!

Thanks for all the help with my CD Writer issues on my home PC. I've now said a final goodbye-ee to W98 at home. Yipee! Who needs it?

well, it depends on what else u want the network to have access to... is it connected to the internet? will one pc act as a gateway/router for the rest? will you add more pc to that network? do you want DCHP or static ip...

if all your machines will be linux, you don't need samba.. that's for windoze sharing. you could use NFS, for example, which comes with most distros.

Wow! What a prompt response.

Initially, I just want file sharing and a shared printer on two computers - the P100 Linux box and a W98 PC. The other networks will need a gateway etc but that's for later!!!

to mount windoze share from linux, use samba (smbmount). you can setup automounting too. to share directories with win98, use the samba server.

there are some good docs here:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html
and here:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/mini.html