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itsPooch

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What equipment do I need to setup a small home network


Hi,

I have a laptop and a desktop PC and my wife also has a PC at home. What I would like to be able to do is setup a small server at home so that all can share our broadband connection and we can have a central area for storing documents for hom as well as backing up work information on my home pc.

I have an old PC that I plan to use as a server. What other hardware and software do you feel I would need.

My PC and Laptop are running XP Pro and the wife is running Windows ME. As is the older system I plan to use as a server?

Thanks for your help !

Chris
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chicagoan
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try look at http://www.e-smith.org 
and download the E-smith server 350 MB it can be used as your internet gateway and server Mailserver all you ever wanted. It is very easy to install and then use DHCP for the clients I'll bet you after downloading it you connect via a browser (http) and configure the rest based on the given IP-Adress, it will take 45 min and you are on the run.
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kiranghag

www.practucallynetworked.com is also one good resource
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You really don't need a server.  You can do peer-to-peer file and print sharing between the Windows PCs, and use, as chicagoan recommended, a broadband router to hook it all together.

If you want to play around using the old PC (depending on how old it is) you can put Linux on it.  I've heard Mandrake is relatively easy to install and configure.