Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 18:02:58 +0000 From: "Scott A. Miller" <samiller@fox.nstn.ca> To: questions@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: questions-digest V1 #794 Message-ID: <199605012203.TAA19279@Fox.nstn.ca>
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On 29 Apr 1996 at 23:41, Benjamin Lewis muttered:
> I'm feeling a bit more ambitious now and would like to set up an
> ethernet connection between the computers.
Do it!!! This is the second most useful thing you can have in your
home! ;->
Besides, if you set both machines up with the boot-manager and a
minimal DOS capability, you can play Doom Death-Match and impress
your friends more than anything they've ever seen you do with FreeBSD.
> I've never worked with ethernet, so I'm pretty clueless
> in that area.
Networking can be fun & easy...
> I thought I'd run a
> little name server on host1 so that Win95 will be able to use
> hostnames instead of IP numbers to refer to local hosts. Does Win95
> have an equivalent to /etc/hosts that would eliminate this need?
Aaarrrggg!!!
Don't do it! DNS will bog the machine down. unless you plan to use
it on a full-time internet connection you really don't need a name
server on your home network. Look in the \Windows directory of your
Win95 machine for a file called HOSTS.SAM, copy it, name the copy
HOSTS. When you look at the file (it's just a text file) all will be
made clear... ;->
On my test network (Not directly connected to the Internet) it looks
like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
63.0.0.1 goober.wwfd.com
63.0.0.2 screamer.wwfd.com
63.0.0.3 junker.wwfd.com
63.0.0.4 hehehe.wwfd.com
63.0.0.9 ottawa.cips.ca
The first and last of the above machines are actually the same
machine...
> I'm interested in finding out what the various config files should
> look like, i.e. /etc/hosts, /etc/named/*, whatever else needs to be
> changed. The Handbook is pretty clear about /etc/printcap, so I
> think I can figure that one out (it probably won't need to be
> complicated since I'll just hook the printer up to host2 and I'm
> unlikely to want to print from host1).
On my main FreeBSD box, /etc/hosts looks like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
63.0.0.1 goober goober.wwfd.com
63.0.0.2 screamer screamer.wwfd.com
63.0.0.3 junker junker.wwfd.com
63.0.0.4 hehehe hehehe.wwfd.com
63.0.0.9 cips ottawa.cips.ca
Notice any similarities???
> From what I've read so far, it looks like 10 Base-2 cabling is the
> way to go for an el-cheapo net like this one. On a side note, does
> anyone have any recommendations for inexpensive ethernet cards to
> use in this application?
I personally will only use 10Base-T. It's the simplest way to go for
almost any situation and it's not expensive. My little test net is
set up with SMC Elite network cards and an incredibly CHEAP hub. (I
think the retail value of the hub is actually around $200, but I got
mine free from a friend who was doing cleanup after a fire. It's
ugly, but it still works!) As for cost of the cards, I think I saw
the SMCs selling for about $75 a piece at some discount place last
week.
> Like I said earlier, I've sort-of done this before using a serial
> connection, but I think it worked more by accident than design.
That pretty much sums up most functioning networks ;->
----------------------------------------------------------
Scott A. Miller
Senior Analyst, | Director: Technical Services
Reality...Processing | Interimage
| http://www1.prestech.net/interimage
----------------------------------------------------------
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