Quote Originally Posted by tcollinson
2) I am planning to connectr it to a router (most likely a 4 port but the number doesn't really matter a whole heck of alot)
You might find that it indeed does matter a whoe heck of a lot what router that you use. Some, like the SMC I'm using now, indeed have awful support for assigning IP addresses; they are given out dynamically and there is little or nothing that can be done on the router side to control IP assignment. Others I've seen (in particularl a DLink a few friends have) have some great and much needed features here - they let you lock an IP address to a MAC address DHCP still hands out IP addresses, but if you tell the router that a MAC address should always get a certain IP address, it happens, even if you just booted that computer from a new Knoppix CD without installing to the hard drive. And, of course, the reserved address never gets given to any other computer (even if it has not been assigned in a while) avoiding conflicts.

I've also seen some routers that let you work with ISP's who provide multiple IP addresses to a customer, and will let the router recognize the multiple addresses and route them to the correct local computer. This is important if you have an ISP who does provide multiple IP addresses, as many of the home DSL/Cable routers only deal well with one routable Internet address.

Of course, you can defeat DHCP assignment in your setup if you want; but you're far better of in doing a little research before you buy a router and get one with the features you need. That way even if you boot Knoppix from a CD or any other live distribution disc, things will still work as you expect.