Hi - I am trying to accomplish three related home networking tasks and I get all confused! Can someone walk me through and/or provide advice...? Thanks
1) Setting up our Linksys Model BEFW11S4 802.11b wireless router so anything behind it (in our home) is secure and nobody can access it from the street. I can access its control panel wirelessly by pointing a browser to http://192.168.1.1/ but then I'm not sure what to do next. The router also has multiple Ethernet ports, one of which connects to a Linksys cable modem that goes out to the Internet via Comcast.
2) Setting up a MacBook Pro (Leopard 10.5.5) so it can access the Internet while I'm in the house, via the above router, with the above security in place and ALSO setting up a Windows XP machine to do the same, at the same time, without my Mac losing simultaneous access.
3) Setting up a hard drive that we access (securely) when out of town, from either the Mac or the Windows machine. I'm hoping that this drive can be connected "somehow" to the above router, so I can access it without having to dedicate a computer (which I don't have) to act as a server and run a firewall? Can this be accomplished by using Network-attached Storage (NAS)? Are there hard drives available that can hook directly to an Ethernet port on my router, and allow remote access from both the Leopard and Windows XP computers? The purpose would be primarily to access files on that home-based drive, and do file-transfer between the home-based drive and remote computers.
Thanks to anyone that has the patience to help!
- Steve
1) Setting up our Linksys Model BEFW11S4 802.11b wireless router so anything behind it (in our home) is secure and nobody can access it from the street. I can access its control panel wirelessly by pointing a browser to http://192.168.1.1/ but then I'm not sure what to do next. The router also has multiple Ethernet ports, one of which connects to a Linksys cable modem that goes out to the Internet via Comcast.
2) Setting up a MacBook Pro (Leopard 10.5.5) so it can access the Internet while I'm in the house, via the above router, with the above security in place and ALSO setting up a Windows XP machine to do the same, at the same time, without my Mac losing simultaneous access.
3) Setting up a hard drive that we access (securely) when out of town, from either the Mac or the Windows machine. I'm hoping that this drive can be connected "somehow" to the above router, so I can access it without having to dedicate a computer (which I don't have) to act as a server and run a firewall? Can this be accomplished by using Network-attached Storage (NAS)? Are there hard drives available that can hook directly to an Ethernet port on my router, and allow remote access from both the Leopard and Windows XP computers? The purpose would be primarily to access files on that home-based drive, and do file-transfer between the home-based drive and remote computers.
Thanks to anyone that has the patience to help!
- Steve