Setting up a small LAN

**saswata** · 10-16-2006, 07:38 AM

I have five PC with OS Win XP.I want to set up a small LAN.Anyone please help me step by step what to do.

**Compunuts** · 10-16-2006, 07:44 AM

1. Install NIC card on each PC.
2. Buy a switch.
3. Install RJ 45 wires from each PC NIC card to each port on your switch.
4. Assign static IP for each PC. From 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.5
5. Now you have a LAN.
6. Depending on what you want to do, the rest can vary widely. Tell us what you want to do and we'll see if we can advise you further.

HTH ..

**saswata** · 10-17-2006, 05:00 AM

Thanks..for the suggestion.

Now,I want to share internet on all these machines.How can I set up internet?Please help me.

**Compunuts** · 10-17-2006, 05:35 AM

What OS are you going to use? Win xp? Home or Pro? Depending on your choice of OS, the setting can be quiet different.

Either way, you are going to need two NICs for the box that would act as NAT gateway. One cable from NIC directly go to cable/dsl modem and the other go to one port of your switch (note here, DO NOT use WAN port on router for the first port for that matter since most is shared port from my experience). Then the rest is up to the gateway box to do the work.

Then on client boxes, set up the gateway's box IP in gateway setting. For example;

[gateway box]
WAN IP - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
LAN IP - 192.168.0.1
[/gateway box]

[First client box]
LAN IP - 192.168.0.2
gateway - 192.168.0.1
[/First client box]

[Second client box]
LAN IP - 192.168.0.3
gateway - 192.168.0.1
[/Second client box]

HTH ...

**saswata** · 10-19-2006, 05:04 AM

I am using WinXP.What will be the IP address of the first NIC which will be connected to the xdsl modem? I understand the second ip address.

**trickster** · 10-19-2006, 11:18 AM

Your ISP will assign this IP address. That is up to them.

**Compunuts** · 10-20-2006, 02:02 AM

Originally Posted by saswata

I am using WinXP.

.
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Originally Posted by Compunuts

What OS are you going to use? Win xp? Home or Pro?

**saswata** · 11-02-2006, 03:08 AM

I am using Win XP home.How I use Internet Sharing for this LAN.

**Compunuts** · 11-02-2006, 06:10 AM

I'm not sure since I've never used XP Home. I'm also not sure if it's capable of doing that without add-on software (which was the case with Win9x/Me).

Does anyone know? I have no Windows box at this moment (my XP Pro box is down almost 6 months due to PSU failure but I've got time to fix it and I'm not rushing it since I can do everything I need with this Linux box).

If you want, you can post a separate thread in Windows support forum and see if anyone knows.