Mostly solved; thanks so much for the help so far: For the benefit of those who search the archives, here's what got me partially on the web: (Problems and questions follow)
Here's my dhcpd.conf. I wanted my IP addresses to start with 192.168.0.1 and go up from there. I wonder if that is part of the problem (described below)? # dhcpd.conf # # Brian's configuration file for ISC dhcpd # # April 4 2002 # option definitions common to all supported networks... # Change domain-name to your domain name. I just preceeded my ISP with # the name of my Linux computer. option domain-name "debian.charterpipeline.com"; # The domain-name-servers you enter here will be used by all other # computers on your LAN. They are ip addresses of your ISP's. option domain-name-servers 24.205.1.62; # This just tells all the other computers that you're a Class C network. # If you're using the 192.168.x.x address, you're Class C. Don't change # the IP address for this. It really should be 255.255.255.0 option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0; # I went with the default lease times. I guess they could be longer. default-lease-time 600; max-lease-time 7200; # These next two are important. They are your primary computer, I think. option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255; option routers 192.168.0.1; # Here's where you set up your range of Dynamic IP Addresses. I set mine # for 10 because I don't honestly think I'll have more than 10 computers # hooked up. It is in this range that your Laptop will have an IP Address # of. You could certainly set it to a range of 100-255 if you want, # reserving the first 100 IPs for Static. subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { range 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.10; } # And here's where you can start setting up your Desktop computers and # their static IP addresses. I honestly don't know what the "host" is used # for, so I decided to make it a "Tag" so I know what computer it is. I # don't have the MAC addresses memorized! # # When you do a winipcfg on your Windows boxen, the MAC Address is the # hardware address given here. The fixed address is the Static IP you want # to assign to that computer. host debian.charterpipeline.com { hardware ethernet 00:C0:F0:56:2E:E9; fixed-address 192.168.0.1; } host JSDESKTOP { hardware ethernet 00:A0:CC:76:76:AB; fixed-address 192.168.0.2; } host LAPTOP { hardware ethernet 00:E0:98:73:5E:F7; fixed-address 192.168.0.3; } host JSLAPTOP { hardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00; fixed-address 192.168.0.4; } ## eof and this is my /etc/network/interfaces: # /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8), ifdown(8) # The loopback interface iface lo inet loopback #first network card connected to isp auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp #network card connecting to the local network auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 One thing I learned is that the host option in dhpcd.conf does not like apostrophes or spaces or maybe both. I was trying to call a machine J'S DESKTOP and dhcp wouldn't start. It said it was expecting a curly brace. Switching the name to JSDESKTOP fixed that. OK, so doing the above got the linux computer on the web, but neither of the attached computers could share the connection. They are the ones on win98 and I notice if I do winipcfg on them now, there is a subtle change. Whereas when they share the internet under windows they say: DNS Servers 192.168.0.1 Now they say: DNS Servers 24.205.1.62 This 24.205.1.62 is supposed (I think) to only show up on the box directly connected to the ISP, not on the others. Any ideas on what setting messed that up, or whether that is even the problem? Unfortunately now though, I've taken a step backwards. I was running dselect and updating (apparently too much stuff) via ftp and I got a weird error saying I had no space left in /var/cache/apt/archives. I have a mostly empty 60GB hard drive so I was baffled. Many errors had to be ignored. Anyway, something it updated or half-updated makes eth0 not get assigned an ip address anymore and so now I can't try to fix the updates because I lost internet completely. Any ideas? Sorry for limited info, since I myself am not sure what to provide to be helpful. -- Brian W. Carver brianwcarver at yahoo dot com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]