I am new to file sharing with Linux. I have made another post in the Linux-Networking and got some usefull information and links. What I ned to know is how do you create an IP address and does Mandrake 10.0 official have any tools to help me set up a home network. If so What do I do. I have a HUB that works with linux. I also have dial up and I do not have a DSL modem, which is what I used before with Windows XP. Any help with this would be appreciated. Again I am new to networking. Thanks.


Webwolf

You should be able to run (as root) "netcfg" and get a gui to enter your ip address, netmask etc... Mandrake is basically the same as Redhat with a different look. But the "netcfg" command should be there.

Remember you need two network interfaces to run a home network. In your case (dialup) one will be the modem and the other will be the ethernet connected to your hub/switch. Make sure you setup the modem interface (ppp0) as your ISP's settings and setup the ethernet interface (eth0) with an internal ip address such as "10.10.10.1". You don't need a tool to create and IP you just assign one to your interface. How do you know what IP addresses are available for internal networks? use this chart:

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

(From: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1918.html)

The other IP blocks are all mostly assigned to large companies or corporations. Ford motor company has whole 019/8 (A) network for example, that like 16,777,216 IP addresses if my math is correct.
A assignments chart can be found here:
http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space