Written By:
Date Posted: August 20, 2001

The next step is to start configuring your network cards.

Note: This is where you need the settings I told you to save earlier.

The setup will ask how many network adapters you have. Since this is a simple instruction set we will answer 2.

Next question is what I/O address your first network adapter is at (this is the one connected to the internet). In my case it is 0x300.

Another Note: I/O addresses are given in hex format. Meaning before the number there is a '0x'.

Next you will need to enter the IRQ of the adapter. Repeat the last two steps for the 2nd adapter as well.

Now we need to answer whether or not your Internet connection runs on DHCP or not. If you were provided with an IP address when your cable modem was installed you probably have a static IP, if you were not provided with an IP address you most likely have a dynamic IP. Dynamic IP's are more common and also what we will cover.
Answer 'y' to this question and press 'Enter'.

Next we answer whether we want our router to log messages from clients. This is good for troubleshooting but otherwise is just a waste of resources. Answer 'N' and press 'Enter'.

We are then asked if we would like to update DNS settings through DHCP. Since this is how your computer finds other computers on the Internet hit 'y' and press 'Enter'.

Now we will set up the network card that is attached to our network. Generally, the second network card in a Linux system is called 'eth1'. Since we have no good reason to change that we won't. Type in 'eth1' and press 'Enter'.

Next we have to choose an IP address for our internal network card. I chose '10.0.0.2'. This is a non-routable address and would be a good choice. Type in '10.0.0.2' and press 'Enter'.

Our network mask will be '255.0.0.0'.

Now we will set up our DHCP server for ease of connecting machines to our network. While you can theoreticly add as many IP addresses as you want to this field you should remember that every IP address that your machine has to manage will slow it down. Be reasonable in picking your IP range. You want enough IP's to cover as many computers and devices as you think will be attached to your system and a few more for safety.

I selected '10.0.0.11 10.0.0.254'. This provides us with just over 200 addresses.

Next we will be setting up DNS. Please read the warnings on the screen. We want to enable the caching DNS server on our router but make it available only to computers on our local area network (LAN). Choose 's' for secure and press 'Enter'.

Next is whether we want to enable DNS request logging. Much like DHCP logging it is good for troubleshooting but not for much else. Answer 'n' and hit 'Enter'.

We want to be able to use our internal DHCP server to dole out IP addys so type 's' and 'Enter'.

We are not going to worry about WINS at this point so type '-' and hit 'Enter'.

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