Hi, I am a novice so go easy. I am trying to build a small home network consisting of my original Win2K box and a new Linux box ( redhat 7 ) I have built. At the moment I have installed a network card in each and set relevant ip addresses, on win 2k on runnig ipconfig i get D:\>ipconfig Windows 2000 IP Configuration Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 81.98.63.39 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 81.98.63.254 Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : on Linux running ifconig [root@linuxworkgroup root]# ifconfig -a eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:30:BD:19:13:FE inet addr:192.168.123.1 Bcast:192.168.123.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:861 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:127 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 RX bytes:84605 (82.6 Kb) TX bytes:12755 (12.4 Kb) Interrupt:10 Base address:0xc000 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:38 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:38 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:3164 (3.0 Kb) TX bytes:3164 (3.0 Kb) I have connect these to a hub. When I connect my network cable into my Win2K box the LAN connection icon becomes active. My problem is .. what is he next step? When I try to ping the ip address I have assigned on the linx box I get a request timed out. It seems to me the problem is either 1. NIC Configuration 2. Cables 3. Hub 4. My stupidity Can someone provide me with some sort of troubleshooting list? Is is possible to check whether a hub is working other than trying every available port? Many thanks

If I were you, I'd post this in the Networking Forum, BUT...as far as I know, Windows can't see Linux...

You need to configure Samba on the Linux box. It's really easy. Just make sure you have samba installed and you can use Webmin or Swat to create your samba.conf file. It is easy, so don't let anyone intimidate you. Basically you designate a workgroup and which directories you want to share. Once you've done that, restart samba by typing /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart and then you'll be able to see the linux box from your windows box. Don't forget to add your windows user account to Linux and vice-versa or you'll be prompted for passwords every time you try to browse. You should browse the Linux forum for more info on this. Everything you need to know is there, and I've posted a good bit of it. There's a very nice samba tutorial at this link. http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/esdd/tutorials/samba.html