After getting three computers with gigabit ethernet connections I decided I should get a gigabit switch to get them to talk to each other quickly.

However, I don't know if I can also connect the internet directly to the switch also, so that, as well as talking to each other, they can also be connected to the internet as well.

So far this has not worked, and I got to thinking that I'm asking two separate tasks off the switch.

Should I really be getting one of the computers to have a direct internet connection via one network interface (I'll have to add a 2nd network card to it), and then get it to organise a private ip scheme for the gigabit-connected computers via its gigabit interface?

how are you connected to the internet? cable? dsl?

it's cable I have frieza

It is probably easier to just pickup a regular router and plug it between the modem and the switch. Since you have cable you will probably not see speeds beyond 100Mbps going out to the internet so you can stick with a cheap ($15) router. Keep the computers plugged into the GigE switch so you can have GigE speeds in house. I have a number of houses set up this way becuase it is usually far cheaper to add a GigE switch to an existing 100Mbps router (or even buy a 100Mbps router too) than to buy a router that is GigE capable.

The speed to the internet is not my priority. Anyhow, it's fast enough.

However, speed between the machines is crucial.

I'm coming around to the fact that I can get one of the machines to act as a router. I will connect the cable modem to a wireless router, and connect one of the machines via a wireless card to the routers signal. The same machine will then, via a wired interface card (i.e. the gigabit one) connect to the switch and administer private ip addresses. I will have to set up some sort fo forwarding from the wireless internet connection to the computers that are wired via the gigabit switch.

In my mind, this one machine (with the two network interfaces) becomes a bridge between the gigabit switch and the wireless internet.

I'm reading up on several linux router howto's in order to get this done.

One drawback is that I seem to have two routers connected in series ... the wireless router and the routing services of the central gigabit machine. Maybe my wireless router could also administer a private lan and act as bridge ... i'll need to look into that.

Any more suggestiosn on people who have already done this are welcome. Thanks for pointers lazlow.

seems like an unneccsary step
should be just a matter of modem->router->switch->lan
as long as each client gets its own ip either statically assigned or dhcp assigned by the router and you have the modem attached to the internet plug on the router and the router gets its ip from the modem it should work

Most wireless routers will have 100Mbps ports on the back. You can plug your switch into the back of one of those. Doing it this way will not slow down your in house transfers, they will still run at GigE speeds. Just the transfers that run beyond the switch will be limited to 100Mbps speeds(or your internet speeds, whichever is smaller). Remember that wireless connections are always(at any real distance from wireless source) going to be significant slower than wired ones. That will not be an issue if you are just browsing, but if you start transferring files(internet) you will see a huge drop in speeds. You CAN build a separate router machine and it is a good learning experience, but for most users it is more PITA than it is worth. Do not forget that your routing machine has to be running(correctly) in order for the rest of the machines to talk to each other or to go out to the internet.