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Linux / Windows network HELP!

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by m trump 1 view

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OK, here's the situation: I'm a Windows specialist w/ a basic understanding of networking principles and I'm trying to help my brother get my Dad's PIII to share his cable modem on a Linux box. Basically, I'm stumped.

Here's the architecture:The cable modem is hooked up to the Linux box to one NIC w/ a crossover cable, Another NIC on the same machine is connected to a hub w/ a straight cable and another straight cable from the hub is connected to the NIC in my Dad's PC. All NICs are working (getting lights) but neither machine can see the other when pinged. The PC is set up with a static IP and has the Linux box's IP set as a gateway, I've also mixed between no IP and no gateway but no go. My brother says he has his end set up right but I have no idea....whatever suggestions I get I'm forwarding them to him as well. This should be simple to do, I'm just not familiar enough w/ Linux or advanced networking to get it to work......

HELP!!

8 replies

by mckaytech

There are really two separate issues here. First is the two computers on the hub not seeing each other. Your physical setup is fine and the gateway shouldn't make any difference on those two being able to ping one another by IP address so I would check and make sure they are both in the same subnet. Use 192.168.0.250 and 192.168.0.251 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 if you have any doubts about the addresses you're using. If you still can't ping, try pinging 127.0.0.1 (the local loopback address) on each of the workstations. If you can't, then TCP/IP is not properly set up and you'll need to re-install that before you can go further. If you can ping 127.0.0.1, then you have a bad NIC, hub or cable (in spite of the link lights).To eliminate the hub as a possible point of failure, you could borrow the crossover cable and directly connect the two PCs - if that works, the problem is the hub.

You might also want to do a "route print" at the command prompt as well as an "ipconfig /all" so you can see what the addresses are routes are as that may point out something you had overlooked before. You may even want to try removing one NIC from your Dad's computer until you get the hub side working (that will eliminate any routing issues associated with the two cards).

Once that piece is working, then you can work on the cable modem sharing piece. That will depend on the OS on your Dad's PC. If it's Windows2000 or Win98SE, I assume you'll be using Internet Connection Sharing. If it's Linux, mo' better. But either way, if you can post that information, you'll get a better answer for that part of it because the setup is quite different.

Also, if I could offer one additional thought - hardware cable/DSL routers with built-in switches (2,4 or 8 ports) are pretty cheap these days and are a whole lot less trouble to set up and maintain than the average Windows ICS scheme.

paul

by gmscne

It may be that you need another IP designation. The IP used for the box to cable may need to be unique. It may be necessary to use another IP address for the NIC which connects the box to the hub. This new IP could be set as the gateway for the PC.

by gmscne

It appears that the box is being used as a router for the PC in this case. Did you look into my suggestion yet?

by pezzz

Or you could just pay the $100 or so and buy one of those NetGear or Linksys cable/dsl routers. They work like a champ.

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