1. MISCELLANEOUS
    1. [Definitions]
      • DNS -- Domain Name System
      • DHCP -- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
      • FTP -- File Transfer Protocol
      • DHCP -- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
      • IDENT -- Indentification Protocol
      • ISP -- Internet Service Provider
      • WINS -- Windows Internet Name Service
      • NAT -- Network Address Translation
      • TCP/IP -- Transmission Control Protocol/Internt Protocol
      • IP -- Internet Protocol
      • LAN -- Local Area Network
      • MAC -- Media Access Control
      • HTTP -- Hypertext Transfer Protocol
      • ADSL -- Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
      • PPPoE -- Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
         
    2. [Private Addresses]
      • There is an assigned address space reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). These are the private addresses used for local networks.
         
      • And they are as follows:
        --- 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
        --- 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
        --- 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
         
    3. [Multiple Subnets]
      • Here is a simple explanation of what a netmask does and what it should be:
        --- 255.255.255.255 will support only one specific IP
        --- 255.255.255.0 will support 254 computers
        --- 255.255.0.0 will support 65,024 computers
        --- 255.0.0.0 will support 16,581,374 computers
         
      • In all of the Freesco boxes that I have heard about, a netmask of 255.255.255.0 is more than plenty. And is much easier to configure for multiple networks. Here is an example of how to do it:
        --- network 1 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
        --- network 2 10.0.1.1 255.255.255.0
        --- network 3 10.0.2.1 255.255.255.0
        --- ...... etc.
         
      • For the first network 10.0.0.1 each machine can use any IP between 10.0.0.2 and 10.0.0.254
         
      • For the second network 10.0.1.1 each machine can use any IP between 10.0.1.2 and 10.0.1.254
         
      • The pattern repeats for all other subnets. None of these networks would be able to talk to each other and each could support 254 computers.
         
      • As you enter each network in Freesco it will display the network and broadcast IP's for each.
         
    4. [Installing Packages]

      •  
    5. [Extra Modules]
      • This archive contains extra network card driver modules that can be added to freesco.
         
      • The following drivers are already built into freesco, and therefore do not need installing manually:
         
        ne ISA NE2000 and clones, and some PCI NE2000 clones.
        ne2k-pci * Most PCI NE2000 clones, including rtl8029
        3c509 3com 3c509, 3c509B, 3c529, and 3c579
        3c59x 3com 3c590, 3c595, 3c900, 3c905, and 3c905B
        rtl8139 * Realtek 8129/8139 based PCI cards
        tulip * DEC 21040, 21041, and 21140 based PCI cards.
        smc-ultra SMC Elite Ultra (8216), SMC EtherEZ (8416)

        * There are later versions of these drivers you may want to try, in the /modules/net/new-net-drivers directory, which support newer versions of these cards.

        * All drivers in this archive have been gzipped. They can be placed directly into Freesco 0.3.0 without changing in any way.

      • The following optional drivers are available in the /modules/net directory of this archive:
         
        hp100 HP 10/100 VG Any Lan Cards
        (27248B, J2573, J2577, J2585, J970, J973)
        smc9194 SMC-9000 / SMC 91c92/4, SMC 91c100
        wd WD8003, SMC Elite, WD8013, SMC Elite16
        3c503 3com EtherLink II, 3c503, 3c503/16
        hp HP 27245A
        hp-plus HP EtherTwist, PC Lan+ (27247, 27252A)
        smc-ultra32 SMC Elite Ultra32 EISA
        e2100 Cabletron E10**, E10**-x, E20**, E20**-x
        de600 Dlink DE-600
        de620 Dlink DE-620
        lance AMD LANCE (7990, 79C960/961/961A, PCnet-ISA)
        at1700 Allied Telesis AT1700
        fmv18x Fujitsu FMV-181/182/183/184
        3c501 3com 3c501 - warning dont use this card. It's junk :)
        3c507 3com Etherlink 16
        3c515 3com 3c515 100mb
        via-rhine * VIA 86C100A Rhine II (and 3043 Rhine I)
        eexpress Intel Etherexpress
        eepro Intel Ether Express PRO/10
        eepro100 * Ether Express PRO 10/100B
        epic100 * SMC EtherPower II PCI (9432)
        pcnet32 AMD 79C965 (PCnet-32)
        depca Digital DEPCA, DE100/1, DE200/1/2, DE210, DE422
        ewrk3 Digital EtherWorks 3 (DE203, DE204, DE205)
        atp RealTek RTL8002/8012 (AT-Lan-Tec) Pocket adaptor
        de4x5 Supports many of the same DEC based cards as the 'tulip' driver.
        ni52 Racal-Interlan NI5210
        ni65 Racal-Interlan NI6510 (not EB)
        3c505 3com Etherlink plus
        ac3200 Ansel Communications AC3200 EISA
        apricot Apricot Xen-II On Board Ethernet
        tlan Compaq Nettelligent/NetFlex (Embedded ThunderLAN Chip),
        Texas Instruments ThunderLAN
        arcnet Arcnet arc-rimi, com90xx, com20020.
        eth16i ICL EtherTeam 16i/32
        3c90x 3c905B, 3c905C, 3c980, 3c980C.
        NOTE: this driver is experimental, and covers some cards already supported by 3c59x.

        * There are later versions of these drivers you may want to try, in the /modules/net/new-net-drivers directory, which support newer versions of these cards.

      • The above drivers apart from 3c90x are all drivers which come with the 2.0.39 kernel and are therefore a bit out of date, the following drivers in the /modules/net/new-net-drivers directory are a seperately compiled collection of PCI drivers by Donald Becker which are much more up to date. Some of them are later versions of existing drivers which support newer versions of cards (for example tulip) so try these if you have trouble. Others are just drivers for new cards. All of the new drivers for PCI cards require the pci-scan.o module to also be placed in the /drv directory with the NIC module and may also require that your computer is PCI 2.2 compliant.
         
        eepro100 Ether Express PRO 10/100B
        epic100 SMC EtherPower II PCI (9432)
        hamachi Packet Engines "Hamachi" GNIC-II adapter
        natsemi National Semiconductor DP83815, Netgear FA-311
        ne2k-pci Most PCI NE2000 clones, including rtl8029
        rtl8139 Realtek 8129/8139 based PCI cards
        starfire Adaptec DuraLAN (AKA "Starfire") Adapter 64 bit adapters.
        sundance Sundance ST201 "Alta" chip, D-Link DFE-550
        tulip DEC 21040, 21041, and 21140 based PCI cards.
        via-rhine VIA Rhine and Rhine-II, D-Link DFE-530-TX
        winbond-840 Winbond w89c840, Compex RL100ATX-PCI
        yellowfin Packet Engines "Yellowfin" G-NIC adapter

         
    6. [NIC Installation]
      • To install a driver on a floppy installation of freesco, first make sure the driver name follows the DOS 8.3 convention. If the name is longer than 8 characters and the .gz extension, you must rename it to a shorter name before copying. Also make sure you have enough room on the floppy, as some drivers are quite large. There is about 43Kb free on a fresh Freesco 0.3.0 floppy. If you're using the DHCP server you should keep at least 20kb free depending on how many dhcp clients you have on your network. The more you have the more space you need. If you dont use dhcp, you should keep at least 5kb free. If you dont have enough room for the drivers you need, you'll have to install on a hard drive.

        Copy the file to the directory A:\ROUTER\DRV on the floppy disk. This directory is /mnt/router/drv from within freesco. Now boot freesco and configure the io and irq settings for the card if they are required. (Most ISA cards require manual io/irq setting while most PCI cards do not) If you like you can rename the driver file to its original long name within freesco, but this isnt required. For example:

           cd /mnt/router/drv
           mv winbond.o winbond-840.o

      • To install a driver on a hard drive installation of freesco, first copy the required driver file to a floppy disk, (or unzip this whole driver archive to a disk if you like) insert the disk into a running freesco machine, and type the following:

           mkdir /fd
           mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /fd

        At this point the floppy disk is mounted at the directory /fd, so for example if you had the entire driver archive on the disk and you wanted to copy smc-ultra.o from the net directory:

           cp /fd/net/new/winbond-840.o /mnt/router/drv

        It is not necessary to rename the driver to a short name when installing using this method. Warning! You must unmount the disk before ejecting it. Also, dont install drivers you dont need as it will increase boot time and may cause problems.

           umount /fd

        Now enter setup and configure your cards io and irq if required, and reboot.

      • troubleshooting: see [NIC-Troubleshooting]