Hi!

I'm a newby in linux--networking, and before I spend time to try it out I wanted to ask if my "idea" works at all. (I already read some threads in this forum but I didn't find questions / solutions fitting for me)

The mission:

I have an old PII with two network-cards standing around - I want to HDD-install Knoppix (because thats easy) and add a DSL Modem on the one card, and a switch on the other. I have an other old win98 system (need that for an old scanner who has only driver support for win98 ), my main DualBoot WindowsXP / Knoppix system and a WinXP Laptop. I want to have network connection between the Windows Systems, and Internet Connection over the Knoppix "server" .
(Right now I have the DSL Modem directly connected to my main System with two network cards (DualBoot WindowsXP / Knoppix) and the Internet Connection works fine when I connect other systems over a cross-over, but so I cannot be online with all systems in parallel)

Did someone already tried out such a network? Are there tools in Knoppix already suited for that purpose?

So basicaly the Knoppix "server" would have to ip-forward to and from the attached "clients" over the switch.... I've heard that this can be a problem for several Windows applications, because they don't like that... Or are there other internet connection sharing ways over a switch?


Thanks in advance for any hints. I want to know if that will work before spending time and money for the switch.