Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 14:10:50 -0600 From: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> To: "Shawn O'Bryhim" <antiquitas@earthlink.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: mac/pc Message-ID: <20011108141050.A37133@grumpy.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <B8102C25.1E2%antiquitas@earthlink.net>; from antiquitas@earthlink.net on Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 12:33:41PM %2B0000 References: <B8102C25.1E2%antiquitas@earthlink.net>
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On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 12:33:41PM +0000, Shawn O'Bryhim wrote: > I am interested in sing freebsd but have a few questions. I have a PC with > Windos 98 on it and a Toshiba laptop with windows 95. My husband has a MAC. > We have a DSL connection for the internet and would like to be able to use > the connection on both his MAC and my PC at the same time. If I were to put > freebsd on my laptop and use that for my internet purposes only, would we be > able to create a network between my laptop, his MAC and my PC with freebsd? > I hope this is not too confusing. Not too confusing as its a natural task for FreeBSD and a very large number of people on this list are doing what you describe. First issue is the use of a laptop as network gateway/router/firewall connected to your DSL service. Do you have 2 network interfaces on the laptop, one for "inside" and another for "outside"? Is needed for this task. Is the DSL ethernet? I can't say how FreeBSD behaves with USB network devices as some DSL modems do not have ethernet. Also you will need an ethernet switch or hub for your inside machines and your inside network. While I happen to use FreeBSD systems at home and work to do just the sort of thing you describe, and its very good educational experience to set one up, dedicated home router/firewalls are dirt cheap sometimes under $50 after the rebates. Otherwise $90 outright. Amazon.com has the SMC7004AWBR wireless which I have for $190. Have seen the non-wireless for $90, $50 mail-in rebate, net $40. Includes 4 smart 10/100 ethernet switch ports. SMC has been very good about providing useful firmware upgrades. Others have mentioned Samba and NetAtalk as "needed to connect Mac/PC". For nothing but an internet connection this is not true. The only reason you might need Samba and/or NetAtalk is to use the FreeBSD machine as a fileserver for Windows (Samba) or Macintosh (NetAtalk). If you have both configured to use the same disk space then the Mac and PC can share files located on the FreeBSD machine. I have an old 133 MHz 486 which serves perfectly for this task. I haven't played with MacOS X hard enough yet but believe it includes NFS (as does FreeBSD). So NetAtalk would not be needed if the Mac is X. Then again if the Mac is X is only a matter of time (if not already) before Samba is running there. > Also, I am still not clear about how freebsd works. If I put that on my > laptop that has win95, will i still see or use win95, or will it be totally > gone? ( i won't cry if that's the case). FreeBSD is a complete OS. Can occupy an entire HD or one or more partitions on one or more HD's. You can use a boot manager of your choosing to select which partition (and therefore OS) you boot, or you can use the one FreeBSD includes to boot Windows, FreeBSD, or whatever else you have. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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