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Originally Posted by DavidMD
Second of all, you write that I should never have to reset a switch. You are the expert, 'cybertron', so I accept your statement as an absolute fact. Why then am I having to reset my switch? I need to clarify.
The Macsense XRouter Pro, 'cybertron', is actually a router/switch/firewall. I assume, therefore, that I am resetting the router component of the unit. Does my assumption make any sense?
That's correct. You're not resetting because of the switch part (most likely anyway, there's always a very slight possibility that the switch is failing), just the router part.
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Regarding the configuration of the Macsense XRouter Pro, 'cybertron', via a Web browser, I configure two features. First, I change the default password, if the password reverts back to the default. Second, the router/switch/firewall has a default general setting to respond to random pings from the Internet, but I keep it set to ignore such pings.
Sounds fine.
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I hope now, 'cybertron', that I have provided a semi-lucid description of this unit, which I guess is technically a router with switch and firewall features. (It also offers Web site filtering and other features that I never use.)
You have.:)
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It has not had a new firmware release since 2002 or 2003, which did nothing detectable except to change the layout of the Web browser configuration interface. Why I am having to reset this router/switch (device) is beyond me. As I stated in a previous message, I must reset it frequently (because it stops working, although the cable modem is fine) -- more frequently than my dynamic IP address for the cable modem would change.
If there's no new firmware available from the manufacturer, I'm not sure there's much you can do. Some routers can be reflashed with Linux-based firmware, but that's not a trivial process and there is some fairly significant danger to doing so.
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The units on the Newegg.com Web site to which you referred me, 'cybertron', are, if I recall correctly, switches. I assume their default setting is to prevent outside Internet traffice from entering the network, but I don't know if, say, any given unit offers Web browser configuration or has a setting to block random Internet pings.
Actually, the switches themselves do no traffic monitoring/blocking/etc. All they do is send traffic on to the right location. For preventing internet traffic from getting into your network you'll still need your router and its firewall.
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In addition, I assume that you recommend these units because you are using a switch, which is all that is required for computers to share a cable modem and to have a LAN behind the switch's hardware-based firewall. Am I correct, 'cybertron'?
Well, not strictly speaking. I'm using the built-in switch on my wireless router, much as you are right now. A switch as far as I know would not have a firewall built-in. I believe only routers do. Certainly none of the consumer switches that can be bought at a reasonable price would have them.
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Based upon your description of home networking, 'cybertron', I simply need to plug each computer into the switch, as I am doing with my XRouter Pro, and test to see that the computers can "see" each other by going from box to box and pinging the other computers' IP addresses. We both know, of course, that the IP addresses are assigned by the DHCP server in the switch (or whatever you want to call the XRouter Pro). ;)
Perhaps the DHCP server in the XRouter Pro is intermittenly failing, although I've never heard of such a thing in a purely hardware-based DHCP server on such a small scale. (Perhaps the latest firmware update corrupted the unit.)
Actually I have.:) The DHCP server on my wireless router used to drop out intermittently on me until I got an updated firmware version.
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Once I determine, 'cybertron', that the computers can all "see" each other, then I can consider, plan, and implement any interaction or sharing that I want on my LAN, correct?
Yep.
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Regarding the two Windows machines (XP Pro and Home) -- in order to provide an example -- I would like to be able to print to the laser printer connected to the XP Home machine on occasion, from my XP Pro machine, because that printer holds more paper and is ideal for printing larger tomes of on-line documentation. That issue, of course, is a Windows networking issue, and inappropriate for JustLinux.
What is soon to be my Linux-only computer has a small laser printer. I would like to be able to print on it from the NetVista, if I set it up as a server for MySQL. This goal is, of course, a Linux networking goal. I'd need to set up network printing during installation of SuSE Linux 9 Server on the NetVista, because that printer will have no local printer.
You should be able to do this. I'm pretty sure Suse will even help you set it up with Yast.
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Once I get the NetVista running as a Linux server with my Linux-only tower on the same LAN, then I can have server-client interaction, because I will know the IP address and machine name of each Linux computer, correct?
Correct.
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I will not continue to ramble on with examples, 'cybertron', but please let me know if I have "caught on" to what I need to do to have an actual LAN. (I would be most grateful.)
You seem to be catching on just fine. It's a little hard to explain this stuff abstractly on a forum. It helps a lot if you have someone physically present who can show you exactly how everything should fit together. One thing you might want to do is look up the difference between a router and a switch. Wikipedia might be helpful here. Then again, maybe not. You never really know with Wikipedia.:)
Also, here's a little ascii-art diagram of what your network would look like with another switch:
Code:
Internet ------ RouterPort1 -------------SwitchPort1---Computer
Port2---Computer Port2---Computer
Port3---Computer Port3---Empty
Port4---Computer Port4---Empty
Port5---Empty
All of the computers should be able to talk to each other in this setup, but because the router is between the internet and all of them nothing from the internet can get in. Hopefully it clears things up a little.