Hi,
As you have surmised, this is entirely a doable task. I have,
(and I suspect any number of people on this list do too) a setup
similar to what you envisage; however, I am not sure of the cost of
the required hardware.
On the hardware side, you shall need
a) a Linux box, with a custom kernel which includes firewall and
ipmasq capabilities (I can send you the .config file that I use to
build kernels for my machine that you can use to help getting
started). I think one can get old 486's for around $500, all
included, but I may well be out of date.
b) An ethernet hub, 8 ports (I think 10Mbs is quite good
enough). Cost? I think around $300-400, tops
c) a network card for all the machines you need to connect. You ccan
get ethernet cards startin at $20; I looked at the hradware
compatibility howto and settled for a dec tulip card (I needed
10/100 cards).
d) Some cable (I went category 5 cable, since it did not seem worth
it to skimp on cabling).
On the software side, I just got the ipmasq package, and
created a ipmasq file (which I can also send over as a reference). I
run a caching bind server, which helps a lot, and I have created an
internal 192.168.1.0 network. Add diald/ppp to the gateway, and you are
all set.
The setup works flawlessly; the laptop can use the modem
(autodialing as needed), and use samba to access the printer on the
Linux box.
Feel free to email me questions
manoj
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Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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