I'd like to set up a network between my computer (Mandrake 8.2) and my siter's computer (Windows 98 - and yes I've tried converting her to the penguin way but she's resolved to stick with microsoft!). Also I'd like to incorporate my Dad's Mac (but that's for another day). I've bought a netgear ethernet switch and put a Netgear FA311 inboth mine and my sisters computers. Booted them both into windows, installed drivers and it's networked fine, so I'm sure all the hardware works. I then booted by PC into linux, harddrake configured my card. Now what?
Any help would be great, Thanks

Have you configured both machines IPs in WIndows? If yes, do the same in Linux. So run Mandrake Control Center find the networking part, enter the right IP and it should work. Test it using
ping -c 4 your_sister_machine_ip
When you have a connection, you'd like to share files, right? Make sure you have Samba packages installed (all of them), then use Filesharing in Mandrake Control Center to specify what you'd like to share.
BTW You can browse the shares using Konqueror.

In windows both the computers are set to "obtain an IP address automatically".

I'm not sure this will work on a normal network (anyone affirm this?)
I've setup my windows networking to specific IP addresses (using the private net 10.0.0.*). I'd suggest setting whatever will be your server to something like 10.0.0.1 and the other "client" machines to 10.0.0.2, 10.0.0.3...etc.

Basically, make sure you have samba installed in Linux and the windows file sharing in windows...and you should be set, at least for installation of things.

well yes you will obviously need to set up a dhcp server to get your automatic address from in the first place... persoanlyl i jsut use a class A (10.0.0.x ) network

cool, that all sounds easy enough to do. What should I put as the 'subnet mask' thingy?

hmm, I just noticed something on the linux bootup (i tend not to watch it), but while starting up it tells me that it is "bringing up eth0 . ." it then waits a few seconds and fails. Is this usual or should I be scared to the very depths of my soul?

Ok, on a related note to the subnet mask question....I've always been curious what the significance of this is when you're setting an IP address configuration. With IP rules like ipchains/iptables I know it's used to match a certain range of IPs, but when you're setting up a network interface, what's the significance of subnet masks?

BTW, I use the subnet mask 255.255.255.0, but like I said...I don't really know what this means in this context.

I am now very happy, I pinged my little sisters computer. Now what should I do if I want to share folders etc. Also, how do I access those folders that my sister's sharing?

Make sure you have NetBEUI installed on the windows machines....make sure that the "file and print sharing" is turned on....and then you can right click on c:\ and select "share". Set a password and you should be in great shape.

ok, but where will I find the windows drive on my Linux PC

This is done through samba. You should look at the docs on that, but it's pretty simple to setup.
The command I use to mount a shared directory of my windows machine on the linux machine is:

smbmount //computername/c /mnt -o password=password

ok, I installed netbui on my little sister's machine and now I can't ping her. Help?

sorry, false alarm, it wasn't plugged in properly (sorry). But just out of interest, why do I need netbui?

Hooray!!! Thanks dudes! I now have access to my sister's MP3 collection (pity she has such a poor taste in music). Now the big question is, how do I give her access to mine?