[CS-FSLUG] wireless networking for beginners?

[Marco Tedaldi]

Ron Thompson schrieb:
> 
> Thanks guys,
> 
>    it is that simple? 

In many cases: yes. It just gets messy, when something does not work
right out of the box. Debugging network connections is a bit of a hassle
sometimes,

> What about adhoc networking?

Do you mean the WiFI Ad-Hoc mode (whcih you won't need when using an
access point or wifi router) or do you just generally want to be able to
connect a computer to your network without having to fiddle with your
settings?

>  I'd like to have 
> different computers network with each other,

That's done by the access point. It forwards the network packets over
lan or WiFi to the right destination.

> and if only one has internet access, have the others bridge to the 
> internet through it.

Ok. If you want it simple, get a wifi router which can connect to the
internet. Than it does almost anything by itself and you don't have to
care about sharing of the settings.

If you can only connect with one PC to the internet and want this
connection shared, there are several steps needed:

First you need to setup NAT on the computer with the internet connection
and activate forwarding, so it does forward data from the other
computers in the network to the internet. This PC should have a fixed IP
on the LAN (or WLAN)

Than setup your internal network. You need to set the default route on
the other computers to the address of the computer with the internet
connection. This can be done manually or by setting up a DHCP server.
Some home routers do not allow to change the default route (they always
want to be the internet uplink themselfes). In such a case deactivate
the DHCP on the router and install a dhcp server on the box which has
the internet connection.

> I should probably get a book on networking in general.
> 
This is always a good idea.

Marco
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