I have two windows machines currently networked. Will it be a problem using a third machine running Mandrake 8.1 to work as a server for the two windows units? I would like to hook a printer, scanner, direcpc internet usb modem and some other usb devices to the linux machine. I don't intend to use the linux box for files or storage, just a traffic cop so to speek. Am I asking for a big headache?

That's pretty much what I'm doing, with Mandrake 8.1 on an old 200-MHz machine with only 80 MB of RAM serving as the router and firewall for my four Win98SE machines. Initially it took me several weeks to get everything working the way I wanted, mostly spent getting Samba set up so I could use the Linux machine as a file server for some large files. I don't know about your USB peripherals since my Linux box predates USB by several years, but communication between the systems should not be much of a problem.

Not sure about how you'd get a Windows box to use a scanner attached to a Linux box, but it's worth a try. Here's a good place to start.

Thanks for replying. I am hoping to find a more stable OS that I can route everything through. I had suspected that the scanner may be a problem. It is an old paperport 6000 that is daisy chained to the printer on the parrallel port. May not be possible. The other concern is getting the direcpc modem to network. Oh well, it will be fun or frustrating or both. We'll see.

Gary.

There should not be a problem with using the scanner (usb devices permitting) locally, you just might have a problem using the scanner remotely. There's good support for printing to a networked printer, but I've not come across networked scanning before.

As for the modem. Not all USB modems are hardware modems, some are software ones in disguise (as I had the misfortune to discover). Again, check out the www.linux-usb.org for more details on you devices.

What kind of hardware, cpu, memory and disk size, cd rom etc; would you reccomend to have in order to handle this system efficiently?

Thanks Thymox,

I can leave the scanner on one of the machines localy. I really want to be able to use the printer, and more importantly the DirecPC usb modem on the network. I live so far out in the country that I will never get any kind of speed for downloads without the satalite system. Eventually I will convert the windows machines to linux but not until I have learned enough about it to make it first. I am not sure what all I will need for the linux machine and I don't want to spend more than I need to make it work. I will however build whatever it takes to make it a stable system.

OK. There are plenty of distros about that are tailored specifically for being a gateway/router. I have recently set-up a P-110 w/ 32Mb of ram and a 13Gb harddisk (but this was overkill) as a gateway/router for my brother. I used Mandrake Single Network Firewall, but many people swear by smoothwall. At the very least, you could use a 386 with at least 1 PCI slot and some ISA slots. You'll need 1 PCI slot for the PCI-USB controller (so that you might be able to use your modem), and at least an ISA network card. A harddisk, obviously, is essential.

This really is scraping the barrel, though. You should be looking to a 486+ to be sensible, or a 586+ if you want to use Mandy SNF. My advice is to spend a small amount of time looking through the files related to some of the distros, and make the decision.

OK, if the printer has a parallel-centronix connection (IEE1284?), then you should be set. There are very few printers that are not supported in one way or another under Linux. The scanners is a different matter. You should look for something called SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy). There should be a list of supported scanners.

Erm. Again -- www.linux-usb.org -- for the USB devices. Unfortunately you might have a bit of a nasty shock with the modem front. But all is not lost. You can set up a Windows box to dial out, then have this connected to a Linux box that acts as your firewall, and have the Linux box connected to the rest of the network. The possibilities are endless.

Enjoy your hunting.

Thanks,

I will get started on the linux box and use the Mandrake 8.1 I'm sure it will take me a while to get it all going but at least it looks like there is help here.

Gary.