Setting up a really basic network...

[horus]

Okay, gang,

So I'm setting up this really simple little network...

I have a 10/100 nic in my Dell Precision 220 Workstation running Fedora Core 1, and a 10/100 pcmcia nic in my IBM ThinkPad 600E, also running Fedora Core 1. Between them is a crossover cable.

I have the nic on the Dell setup as 192.168.1.10, and the nic on the ThinkPad (which has the modem) as 192.168.1.1, both with subnet masks of 255.255.255.0. The Dell (Giza) is set up to use the ThinkPad (falcon) as its default gateway.

When I ping from one to the other, they each see each other okay.

When I attempt to do anything else I'm running into problems.

Everytime I bring up the network configuration tools, I'm told my static routing tables are invalid... and when I attempt to configure routes at the command line with the route command, I'm told that the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 doesn't make sense for these routes. What's up with that?

There is so much I don't understand about networking, I think I'm gonna put off taking that network+ exam for a loooooong while now, because I can't even figure this simple stuff out.

Oh, and I don't wanna go get my PhD in Linux networking just to set this simple network up to be able to share files and my internet connection between these machines.

I've had a look at the PET for Internet connection sharing... and at an issue of Maximum Linux that covers IP Masquerading fairly well for Mandrake 6.0...

I'm beginning to feel as though this may be another one of those Red Hat Secret Tricks ya gotta know to run Red Hat/Fedora worth a damn.

I've been reading in the TCP/IP How-To and in Running Linux to see if I can find what I'm overlooking... It seems I don't know enough to know where to begin.

Y'all know me from my previous posts... I'm not one to just give up - I'll get this figured out eventually, but I'm actually trying to do something before I retire this trip... I need to transfer files from my laptop (several hundred megs worth) to the workstation.

Funny how deterministic purposes always interfere with our serene existence in the Tao, isn't it?

Well, enough Chinese philosophy. Thanks for any help you might give me.

Later On,
Dave

[Blaqb0x]

You should just set the gateway on each machine as themselves. Since they are on the same subnet they don't need a gateway.

how exactly do you want to share files? you can do so by setting up an ftp, ssh, samba, nfs server on one(or both) and do it that way. I suppose the easiest is via ssh because it's probably already installed on both and encrypted(not that anyone is going to snoop on you single cable network).

use sftp or scp to copy files from one place to the other.

scp filename username@SSH_Server:/path/to/dir

* use the -r switch to do recursive(all directory)

Also did you check your firewall? that could be blocking traffic. If you want to do set one up as a gateway, I would just look for some software that does it for you. I'm sorry but, I can't give you a particular package name but, there plenty out there.

[trickster]

Hi,

Can you post the output of the commands

ipconfig /all

and

route

?

[horus]

Hi, Trickster,

I'm on the ThinkPad right now... and the Dell is running, too.

Just for reference, the ThinkPad's hostname is falcon, and the Dell is Giza.

Hmm... ipconfig is not present on the Dell... do you mean ifconfig?
There is no /all switch for ifconfig, though... but here's what it reports for Giza:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:B00:24:64D
inet addr:192.168.1.10 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped 0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:240 (240.0 b)
Interrupt :5 Base address:0xe880

(I'm not going to bother typing in the loopback stuff unless I have to... it shouldn't really be relevant to this, should it?)

Here's the ifconfig output for falcon (pasted in)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:05:5D:51:48:17
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:240 (240.0 b) TX bytes:240 (240.0 b)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x300

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2864 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2864 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2326093 (2.2 Mb) TX bytes:2326093 (2.2 Mb)

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:208.148.199.103 P-t-P:208.148.192.20 Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1514 Metric:1
RX packets:2805 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2911 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:1877580 (1.7 Mb) TX bytes:387291 (378.2 Kb)

Here's Giza's route output:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default falcon 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

And here's the output from falcon:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
hiper1-arc1.erd * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default hiper1-arc1.erd 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ppp0

Thanks again for any help. I intend to try Blaqb0x's suggestions, also. I think my main trouble is not having routes established properly, and not knowing which servers to set up.

It's late, and I gotta get up at 4:30 a.m. CDT to go back to work, so I'll check back after I've had time to try all this out and see how it goes.

Later On,
Dave

[quote author=trickster link=board=1;threadid=9198;start=0#msg83090 date=1084278383]
Hi,

Can you post the output of the commands

ipconfig /all

and

route

?
[/quote]

[gorn]

the ipconfig /all is trickster giving you WINDOWS instructions! I don't know what's wrong with him, his memory must be corrupted or something.

The routes look a bit odd, where's the 169.254 coming from? 169.254.x.x ips are often given out when DHCP fails. you can delete those from your table, but they shouldn't actually cause any harm.

do you have a firewall on IBM that allows it to act as a gateway?

[trickster]

Gezz, my memory IS messed up. I meant ifconfig.

Anyway, on Giza, try something like

route add default gw 192.168.0.1

[horus]

[quote author=trickster link=board=1;threadid=9198;start=0#msg83116 date=1084364590]
Gezz, my memory IS messed up. I meant ifconfig.

Anyway, on Giza, try something like

route add default gw 192.168.0.1

[/quote]

First of all, I want to thank everyone who replied for all the help. It really means a lot to be able to come to a place like Linux Junior and know that folks are going to take your requests for help seriously.

Second, another problem solved! I wound up setting up NFS between the two machines since several folder trees were involved in my task.

I do have complete notes of my configuration changes, and intend to contribute a PET that covers the basic setup and implementation, but I can't do that now (I'm at work!) so look for it in a few days, when I get through cleaning it all up for publication.

Thanks again, folks! See you all...

Later On,
Dave

[horus]

Hi, Group,

Work has really cut into my personal time lately, so, in the interest of getting the info out there, I'm going to post my system notes on this topic without further polish until I'm able to do the job properly. I apologize if this gets a bit longish and wordy (I try to capture everything, no matter how trivial, when I work a problem - never can tell what will turn the trick for ya!

Without further ado:

<begin pasted text file>

16 May 2004
Local Area Network Configuration

1.0) Background:

I have the following hardware which I wished to be able to network so
that I could share files:

1.) An IBM ThinkPad 600E laptop running a D-Link DFE-670TXD PCMCIA
network interface card (NIC) and a PCMCIA 56k v.90 modem.

2.) A Dell Precision 220 Workstation running a built-in NIC identifed
by Linux as a 3c905C-TX/TM-M [Tornado]

Both of these machines are running Fedora Core 1. The IBM is called
falcon, and the Dell is Giza.(How these two hosts are named is covered
below. You could also do things the hard way, but this is easy and it
works well enough that I didn't want to bother with editing
/etc/hostname by hand.)

These two systems are linked via their NICs with a Cat5e crossover
cable. It will eventually be desirable to utilize IP Masquerading/IP
Forwarding to attach the Dell to the Internet via the IBM.

It is worth knowing (if you don't already) that the address block
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 isa block of Class C networks reserved
for LANs that do not directly connect to the Internet. All of this is
covered in greater detail in the Network How-To, but the stuff here will
get the job done without wading through all that if you don't want to.

Basically, if you use the addresses here, orsomething similar to them
(i.e., somewhere in the 192.168 block of addresses) it will work out
okay.

2.0) Investigations:

Using the Network configuration tool (click on the K Menu button, then
select System Settings, thenNetwork) from KDE, and logging in as root
on both machines, I configured an eth0 interface on each machine as
follows:

1.) falcon:

Devices:

General:

Nickname: eth0
Activate when computer starts
Statically set IP addresses:
Address:192.168.1.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway addressNone)

Route:

Destination Network = 192.168.1.10
Prefix (Netmask) = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.1.1

Hardware Device:

Hardware: eth0 (D-Link DFE-670-TXFD Fast Ethernet)
Bind to MAC Address: 00:05:5d:51:48:17

Hardware:

DescriptionTypeDeviceStatus
================================================== ================
D-Link DFE-670-TXD Fast EthernetEtherneteth0ok
Generic ModemModemModem0configured

DNS:

Hostname: falcon {NO other options set on this tab}

Hosts:

IPNameAliases
==========================================
192.168.1.1falcon
192.168.1.10Giza

2.) Giza:

Devices:

General: Nickname: eth0
Activate when computer starts
Statically set IP addresses:
Address:192.168.1.10
Subnet Mask:255.255.255.0
Default Gateway address:192.168.1.1

Route: Destination Network = 192.168.1.1
Prefix (Netmask) = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.1.1

Hardware Device:

Hardware: eth0 (3c905C-TX/TM [Tornado])
Bind to MAC Address: 00:B00:24:64D

Hardware:

DescriptionTypeDeviceStatus

================================================== ================
3c905C-TX/TM [Tornado]Etherneteth0ok

DNS:

Hostname: Giza
Primary DNS:192.168.1.1
Secondary DNS:208.137.128.8 {Netdoor PDNS Server}
Tertiary DNS:208.137.128.6 {Netdoor SDNS Server}
DNS Search Path:horusnet.net

Hosts:
IPNameAliases
==========================================
192.168.1.1falcon
192.168.1.10Giza

This resulted in being able to ping from one host to the other, but no
network services.I configured a DNS server on falcon per the
instructions found in Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummiesand enabled IP
Forwarding by modifying /etc/sysctl.conf to set the value
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1.This did nothing to help me as yet - all I
still knew how to do was ping... and I ended the day.

Attempting to establish routes using the route command from aroot shell
resulted in errors signalledby the cryptic message "SIOCADDRT file
exists". Using route to show which routes were already set up, I found
that routes had already been set up by the network configurator, and
were somehow locked down. I suspect this is some more of Red Hat's
attitude of making things "foolproof"...I wish I had abetter idea about
how Fedora documented such stuff. Generic documentation seems to be of
only limited usefulness in these situations...Attempting to log in by
telnet or ftp was useless... I kept getting "no route to host"...

Another day passed... I re-examined the routing tables, and realized
that no entry for the network, which I dubbed horusnet, was present in
the routing tables. Issuing the commands to add horusnet to the table
resulted in the following routing tables:

1.) Giza
Kernel IP routing table
Destination GatewayGenmask FlagsMetric Ref Use Iface
horusnet *255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0*255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0* 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
defaultfalcon 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

2.) falcon
Kernel IP routing table
Destination GatewayGenmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
horusnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0eth0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0lo

(The syntax for route is fairly straightforward. To set up the network,
it went like this: route add -net horusnet netmask 255.255.0.0)

This resulted in no longer receiving routing error messages, but I still
could not share files...Reading further in Running Linux, it appeared
that I needed to setup NFS. Checking in the Servicestool, I saw that
NFS was already running, so I created /etc/hosts, /etc/networks, and
/etc/exportsfiles:

1.) Giza

1.1) /etc/hosts:

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.1 falcon
192.168.1.10 Giza

1.2) /etc/networks:

horusnet 192.168.1.0

1.3) /etc/exports:

# exports file for Giza

/home (ro)
/usr (ro)

2.) falcon

2.1) /etc/hosts: {identical to /etc/hosts for Giza.}

2.2) /etc/networks: {essentially identical to that for Giza}

2.3) /etc/exports: {identical to that for Giza}

Additionally, a mount point on Giza, /mnt/falcon, was created with the
mkdir command from a root shell. Now, issuing a mount command from Giza
(mount -t nfs falcon:/home /mnt/falcon) resulted in a connection
refusal due to permission issues (Much information about this and other
related networking topics was found in the Linux Network Administrators
Guide).

After thinking about it for a while, I rebooted both hosts. It now
became possible to mount the volume as specified above, but I still
could not access it as root. Reading further revealed that this is a
default security setup in NFS... I logged in as user horus and all was
well. Note that in /etc/exports the NFS volumes were set up as
read-only. This was to make it possible to copy files from one to
the other, butnot to alter any files on one host from another. (My
objective was to be able to copy files from my laptopto the desktop
machine for use locally...)It would be possible to mount the NFS
volumes available to Giza at boot by adding lines as needed to
/etc/fstab. At this time, I am not convinced I need to do this.
I am toying with the idea of making a script to make mounting the NFS
volumes easier, though.

It is now Saturday, 22 May 2004, and I'm getting ready to go play music
tonight, but I've done a bitsince the last entry in this file. I've
added lines to the fstab for falcon to mount the Giza volumes at boot,
but this is not as convenient as I might like if falcon is not
connected, so I will probably undo it. Additionally, I now have mount
points /mnt/Giza and /mnt/Giza-usr on falcon setup to use the /home and
/usr directories from there, respectively. All told, the setup is
trouble-free now that I have learned how to make it work correctly. I
did create bash scripts to automate mounting of the drives, however,
they must be run as root at the present time... I call the scripts
saddleup and dismount. Here they are for Giza:

#! /bin/bash
# saddleup: mounts nfs volumes from falcon onto Giza
mount -vt nfs falcon:/home /mnt/falcon
mount -t nfs falcon:/usr /mnt/falcon-usr

#! /bin/bash
# dismount: unmounts nfs volumes from falcon off Giza
umount /mnt/falcon
umount /mnt/falcon-usr

Andfor falcon:

#! /bin/bash
# saddleup: mounts nfs volumes from Giza onto falcon
mount -vt nfs Giza:/home /mnt/Giza
mount -vt nfs Giza:/usr /mnt/Giza-usr

#! /bin/bash
# dismount: unmounts nfs volumes from Giza off falcon
umount /mnt/Giza
umount /mnt/Giza-usr

I usually don't bother with dismounting before shutdown, but the
scripts are there for my convenience if I need to ever unmount a
set of nfs volumes quickly.

As an end note: I had originally configured a DNS server? I
disabled it, but did not uninstall it yet, as I believe that I may
revisit setting up DNS once I understand IP Masquerading a bit
better.

<end pasted text file>

I still intend to do a PET, but it'll be much later on. Gotta get off to bed now - I'm working tomorrow morning.

Later On,
Dave