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by HungryGuy on November 7th, 2004

HungryGuy

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I have machines running Windows, Linux, Mac, DOS 6.22, and an Xbox and PS2. Is it possible to network these all together?

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  • by Carsomyr on November 10th, 2004

    Carsomyr

    Can you network them all together? Yes.

    When they are networked, will they be able to do anything useful together? Maybe.

    At the hardware level, the easiest way of networking them would be to connect them to a NAT router, an Internet connection-sharing device that you can buy at your local computer store. When they are connected to the router, they will all be able to use the Internet at the same time and they will be able to directly communicate with each other as well.

    The router you buy can be wired or wireless. If it's wireless, each device that wants to connect to the router will need a wireless network adapter. If the router is wired, it will most certainly be Ethernet, so each device will need an Ethernet network adapter. If the wired router does not have enough Ethernet ports to accomodate all of your devices, you will need to buy a network hub or switch (preferably a switch), connect it to the router and then connect some of the devices to it.

    Once the hardware is set up, it's time to configure TCP/IP on each device; TCP/IP is the protocol the Internet is based on and the one the devices will use to "talk" to the router and each other. Exactly how you configure TCP/IP depends on the device, and if you do not know how to configure it on a given device, consult the operating system or device documentation. An easy way of configuring TCP/IP, if a given device supports it, is to configure the device for DHCP. Nearly all broadband routers come with a built-in DHCP server these days, and if a device is configured for DHCP, it will "ask" the router for automatic configuration information.

    After configuring TCP/IP properly, each device should be ready to use the Internet and "talk" to each other. Now is when the question of "will they be able to do anything useful together" comes in, and the answer really depends on the software support of each device's operating system. I suggest submitting a new question that describes what you'd like the devices to be able to do together so you can receive more specific help in that area.

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