hello

i have been thinking about making a new network...

now i have two computers, each of them with two ethernet cards, one of the cards connects to the other computer, and the other card in each computer connects to a cable model (this means i have two cable modems) simple, right?

but if i buy a new computer i need to have a network with a router... so i was thinking about getting a wireless network, then i would also have to change my internet connectio, only one connection that connects to the router and shares it with all the computers.

im posting this message now because i saw a review of a wireless router, one from linksys and i was very impressed! the configuration lets you setup many things! for example security... it has a firewall, it even controls cookies, active-x, java, the router (hardware) huh!?

one of the things that makes me want to start a network is the new ability to connect usb or rj45 devices to the router, and that router will make the device being able to be used by all the computers, for example:

network harddrives by ximeta http://www.ximeta.com/

thats great! and it used rj45! well... the truth is that even four 250 gigabytes harddrives are not enough for me hehe, and i don't think that a wireless router has so many rk45 ports! say, could i connect a normal ethernet hub to the router and then connect the harddrives to that hub, will it work!?

some routers also have usb connections, right? they let me share printers, i never used a printer so maybe someone else could talk about this... would be nice. http://www.hardware-pacers.com/pages...=280&catType=r

now the questions...

the internet... with three or more computers connecting to the internet using the same router, theu ip address's in the internet will be the ip address of the router, right? this means, i will have three or more computers with the same ip address, that could be a problem, for example:

hosting game servers, what if i want to host three servers... each in one computer, the ip is the same, the players will connect to what computer?

limits... for example so internet relay chat networks have ip address limits, no more than two connections per ip address

i have heard about "port forwarding" but i really don't know what it is...

what about "dmz, demilitarized zone" what is it? what i read is that it reveals your computer to the internet...

the biggest problem for me will be compatibility with linux, slackware, is it safe?

well, i can't remember of anything else now... i think that i will have questions about how to setup the hardware.

i should wait some time until i buy a good wireless network, now that microsoft will change the wireless setup with the microsoft windows xp service pack 2... maybe things will change i don't know, what do you recommend? any new technology coming out?

thanks!