Thanks for the clarification, I think that I am going to go for 4. for now.
If I refer to the Wiki for ‘Internal LAN setup’ it says that the
“internal” LinuxMCE LAN “will have it’s own (different” IP range, in contrast. For example, if you have used the default setup options, that IP range will be 192.168.80.1 to 192.168.80.254. The Core server will be 192.168.80.1. The rest of the internal LinucMCE LAN connects to the Core through the second NIC card you installed in the core”
So, given the above I think that I would need to connect my Linksys router to the motherboards on-board NIC (as it is currently). However, going by what you told me in your earlier message (included below) it sounds like I need to double check how Kubuntu has detected the two NICs and which one is assigned to eth1 and eth0
“So which NIC is which?! That is the key question - whatever Kubuntu detects as eth0 or the "first" NIC must be connected to the external network. The second NIC it discovers will be eth1 and must be connected to the internal network.”
My question is whether I actually need to fit that NIC card in my core at all? Do I need to have the 2nd NIC installed for LMCE to know that I have an ‘Internal’ and an ‘External’ NIC available? What does it default to if I only have one NIC, is that then forced to be the ‘Internal’ NIC and always provide an IP via the DHCP server in the core?
I guess that it doesn’t really matter if I am forced to use that plug-in Ethernet NIC card. Except that it will be taking up one of the two available Pci slots on my motherboard (I have an ASUS M2NPV). To avoid tying up a Pci slot I could try getting a Pci-E NIC card but I am not sure it if it would run under Linux.
Finally, probably a stupid idea, but I was just thinking if I could use a Wireless bridge in some creative way (I recall seeing a pointer to a Netgear on a Wiki page which runs under Linux).
Would I be able to have this on the ‘Internal’ side, but connect to it from my Windows box by specifying the correct wireless AP? Or would I still have a conflict as I have a DHCP server on the ‘External’ side (i.e. Linksys router) and also one on the ‘Internal’ side (ie LMCE core)? And if this is possible, would it enable my LMCE box to find the media on my Windows share?
Thanks again for your help