[techtalk] newbie network problems

[Michelle Murrain]

On Tuesday 08 May 2001 08:26 pm, Eunice Roberts wrote:
<snip>
> I have and ibm thinkpad, an old mac powerbook, and my lovely new linux
> box.  I have a (dynamic) dsl connection (Cisco 675 external router).  Plus
> 10baseT ethernet hub.
>
> The problem is that my linux box doesn't seem to be connecting. Or maybe
> it is but I just can't tell.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  The
> motherboard came with sis900 integrated Fast ethernet controller.  I see
> the sis900 module load up every time I restart the computer. Linux box is
> configured for DHCP.
<snip> 
>My questions are:
> Do I need another NIC to make this setup work? If so, why?
> How can I better test to see if Linux sees my ethernet connection?
> Do I need to do some sort of ip masquerading to make this work?
> Do I need to configure NAT to make this work?
> How do I configure $SOCKS?
> What else am I missing?
>
> I seem to be missing something fundamental which is stopping me from
> getting this up and going.  I have no problem with the other 2 PCs I just
> configure for DHCP, maybe provide a few DNS numbers, connect to the hub
> (or just to the router) and I'm off

What's providing the DHCP? I'm assuming the router? Is that your gateway? You 
need to make sure that the linux box is pointing to the gateway/router, and 
getting DHCP from there. If you are depending on your ISP for your DHCP, that 
would be a problem.

What I've done (which may or may not be a good idea), is give all of my boxes 
static IP addresses within the 192.168.1.x range, instead of using DHCP. DNS 
points to my ISPs DNS server (I've got cable with dynamic IP). That has 
always worked like a charm for me. I have also used DHCP, but even though my 
boxes are looking at my gateway (a netopia broadband router) for DHCP, 
sometimes it doesn't make the connections. I really don't know why - and 
since the static IP addresses work so well, I never bothered to troubleshoot 
it. 

The other advantage to static IPs is that you can create routes to your boxes 
so that you (or the world, depending on what you want to do) can potentially 
access them remotely.

Michelle
-- 
------------
Michelle Murrain, Ph.D.
President
Norwottuck Technology Resources
mpm at norwottuck.com
http://www.norwottuck.com