Using Linux on a Home Network: Three ways to start

[Keefe]

Using Linux on a Home Network
Three Ways To Implement the Upstart Unix Flavor

If the concept of using Linux on your home network is appealing, it's wise to be sure of your expectations before you proceed.

Linux is appealing because it's an open operating system available at low or no cost that is very fast and has a cleaner interface than the major variations of Windows. You don't necessarily have to be an expert in operating systems or a software engineer to use Linux (though it wouldn't hurt), but it's a mistake to view Linux as an inexpensive alternative to Windows that anyone can install and use as easily as Windows, particularly on a network.

Installing and configuring Linux may be beyond the reach of many users, but that doesn't mean that Linux doesn't have a place on home networks--in fact it may already be there if you use an Internet appliance. There are three ways in which you can use Linux on a home network, with increasingly demanding degrees of user expertise: Internet appliances with embedded Linux; conventional desktop PCs using Linux primarily for Internet access; and full-bore, fully-featured Linux installations.

The least demanding application is to buy an Internet appliance that runs on a specially configured version of Linux--with interface, application, and peripheral support tailored specifically for the Internet appliance--and the ability to work on a home network. If you want to set up your own Internet appliance using an extra PC (Linux is great at not demanding heavy system resources), a second home network implementation of Linux is to install a version that's compatible with your system hardware (more on this below) and use the bundled browser for fast browsing via your network connection (hopefully to a broadband ISP).

For the brave of heart, if you want to use a Linux machine as a fully functional peer on a home network, including network file and printer sharing with Windows PCs in addition to sharing Internet access via a cable or DSL modem and router or residential gateway, you'll need solid expertise and a good deal of patience.

Internet appliances have a role in the market for people who don't own PCs, but many if not most of the sales are to users who own multiple PCs but want Internet access in more locations in their home or office. The first generation of Internet appliances used dial-up phone modems with captured ISPs, which weren't useful on a network and were unappealing to people who already had a preferred ISP and didn't want additional e-mail addresses.

[Keefe]

Internet Appliances--Linux-Enabled
Internet appliances in the second wave of products, which debuted starting in the fall of 2000, have network capability and can use alternate ISPs--this generation also runs on Linux or Linux-like operating systems.

1. The Gateway Connected Touch Pad runs on Transmeta's Mobile Linux and it is intended to work on a network, but also has a dial up modem. The Gateway has jacks for Ethernet and HomePNA network connections, but in the first version only one of the jacks is actually connected to an on-board adapter. The software that enables network access has been slow to appear, but is being provided by America Online (the Connected Touch Pad's user interface is Instant AOL). --Concerned about multiple users being able to access AOL simultaneously, AOL prefers control of the network piece, which is a new development for the ISP. The Connected Touch Pad also supports locally connected printers.

2. Oracle's New Internet Computer (NIC) 2.0 runs via a CD-ROM disc with a version of Linux with a custom interface and content partners. You can save bookmarks, cookies and personal configuration preferences in the NIC's 4MB flash RAM, but should consider this device as an Internet-only system with no local storage. While supporting several printers for direct connection, the NIC also can print to network printers, although it can't access shared network drives.

Networked Linux PC
Internet appliances are typically closed, special purpose systems, but if you want to use a regular PC with Linux you can do so at two different levels. For our testing we purchased or downloaded four popular Linux distributions: Caldera OpenLinus eDesktop 2.4, Corel Linux OS Second Edition, Linux-Mandrake 7.2, and Red Hat Linux 7.

When we attempted to install each of these versions on identical network test machines (Dell Dimension XPS B1000's with 256MB RAM and 32MB nVidia GeForce2 GTS display adapters), only the Linux-Mandrake version installed without a hitch. Error messages indicated that the display adapter or monitor wasn't supported with the Caldera and Corel versions of Linux and while attempting to install Red Hat an error window popped up on the screen suggesting that an exception condition that was probably a bug had occurred, and directing the user to save the message to a floppy and e-mail it to the developers--which wasn't possible since the computer was totally hung.

The Mandrake installation went smoothly, however, and once the system booted under the OS it was only necessary to click on the Netscape icon to immediately access the Internet (like the other test machines, this one was plugged into an Ethernet switch connected to a router that is in turn connected to a cable modem). If we only needed an Internet access device we could have stopped there--we attempted to go further, however, trying to move to the third level, using Linux as a full network peer, but had little success.

We tried to use the Drake configuration utility to access a network printer (a new Brother HL1270N) connected to the network directly but, even though the Mandrake utility included drivers for this printer model, a series of configuration screens asked for location and host name specifications that seemed obvious, but the upshot was that we were not able to successfully configure the network printer. With technical support or a lot more knowledge about Linux, it's likely the printer configuration would have been successful and that possibly the other versions of Linux would have worked as well, but the level of difficulty is beyond average users.

Lean, clean, customizable, and inexpensive are well-deserved attributes of the Linux operating system in its various distributions, but unless you have the knowledge and time to figure out how to make it work with your existing peripherals, systems, and applications, your best bet is to limit your network's Linux applications to Internet appliances with custom versions of the operating system, or to install a relatively forgiving and capable Linux distribution such as Mandrake 7.2 on systems that you will use for Internet access and e-mail.

Another easy way to implement a home Linux server is to download and install e-Smith's Server & Gateway.  Free to download, burnthe ISO and boot from the CD.  Ten minutes later you'll have a fully functioning Linux home server.  It sounds too easy, but it just works.

A quick review of e-Smith's Server & Gateway:
http://www.ebabble.net/archives/2000..._may_2000.html

A link to the company and their product:
http://www.e-smith.org/