Linux - NetworkingThis forum is for any issue related to networks or networking.
Routing, network cards, OSI, etc. Anything is fair game.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Basically, you will need a network. Every computer will need a network adapter. It might be built in some of the computers already or you might have to buy it separately.
You will also need network cables. Buy some in a store near by. Chek your furniture/room set up and estimate lengths of tha cables to buy.
Then you will need a switch. It is a small device with several ports for plugging in the network cables and it will allow the computers to be able to talk to each other.
Of course, you will have to install networking to all the computers' operating systems and set it up properly.
When you say you want to set up your computers as a network that encompasses many different possible services. You can set up your server to perform windows-like network services via Samba. You can set up a DHCP service to pump out ip addresses and other information to the computers at boot up. You could set up a web, email, or ftp server in combination with a DNS server for for an internal network. You could use one computer to share internet access and provide firewalling. You could set up NFS sharing for file sharing only between your linux boxes... theres tons of possibilities. As far as the how, your best bet is to start reading howtos, man pages, and visiting web sights that provide these open source services. Your distro might have already installed these capabilities on your system. Look for programs like Samba (windows stuff), Bind (nameserver stuff), Apache (web stuff), DHCPD (dhcp stuff) etc. Reading forums in the networking area can also provide ideas as to what other people use for these things. You also want to make sure anything you set up is protected from unwanted visitors.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.