linux problems for new user

I am new to linux, a couple of days ago I got a copy of mandrake 8.o and setup a server, router firewall etc... that connects to the internet, I also setup a workstation with mandrake 8.0.
I have a network and I also have a machine running XP, now when I ping my network the XP machine and the Workstation find each other, but the reserver is unreachable.
I am trying to get my network setup so that the server connects to the internet and the workstation connects through it, someone did say I should have the server running RED HAT 7.1, but I dont know.

Any help would be good

I also forgot to ask, in windows you go to the network icon and you can see all the machine in the network and all there shared stuff, how do you do that in linux and how do you set shares.

Hey i'm having the same problem but with windows xp to xp! I think windows xp is just ****ing everything up! arggggg

Hornet -- The easiest thing for you to do would be to go to the mandrake control centre and set everything up from there, i believe there are options to turn on connection sharing, firewalling etc.
To set windows shares in linux you need to use samba - here's something to get you started - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/chapter/book/

Right in order to 'see' windows machines on a linux box you need to use Samba. You can configure the SAMBA shares and host name from Linuxconf and many samba network browsers exist (free) for Linux. Mandrake 8 is very easy to use, you made the right choice there! Networking Windows to Linux will need a bit of time while you configure everything so it has the same options and stuff... Also, I have problems getting XP to share anything at all to other computers, in fact I use my Linux box with Samba to share disk space over the network 'cause XP keeps ****ing it up, it really isn't that good at this networking thing, XP.

If you want the whole browse the netneighborhood thing, check out lineighborhood.

Look into Samba and Snort. make sure you have them both set up and configured properly. Samba allows your win computers to do file sharing with linux computers. Snort is for routing.

I was under the impression snort was an intrusion detection system, have they increased its functionality?

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Originally posted by petemcevoy
I was under the impression snort was an intrusion detection system, have they increased its functionality?

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So did I.

Yeah, snort is an intrusion detection prog, along with tripwire and a host of others.