Hi, having trouble with networking

Hello,

Sorry if this is a well worn topic, but been searching out there for
the past week and I'm getting nowhere,dont want to go back to windows
XP!

Could anyone reccomend a good (basic) networking tutorial for a
beginner in linux. I have setup modem and internet, but would like to
share internet to 4 windows XP pc's and I amd completely stuck and
tutorials on the web I have found just dont help.

In a bit more detail,

New to linux and having a bit of trouble networking. I'm in a student
house, 4pc's running win xp and a server pc. This server pc was
sharing the internet connection (adsl) and acting as a fileserver.
However, with windows XP I'm having to reinstall it every month
becuase it just slows down after a bit then crashes all the time (no
idea why) which is why I want to change it to a unix/linux server.

So, bought redhat (not too sure which version, a new one maybe 9 (has
iptables)). Managed to install it fine. Got some drivers for my
modem (bt voyager -EciADSL drivers from http://eciadsl.flashtux.org/)
and got all that setup, so I now have the internet installed and
working.

My trouble lies in basic networking and sharing the internet
connection. My network car has been recognised by redhat and it seems
to be installed.

I ran netconfig from the console and assigned it 192.168.0.1 adresses
with matching gateway etc address (it filled it in one the main ip was
entered).

however, I cannot seem to ping it from my windows xp machine (I thinlk
I havent set it up correctly).

So here comes my real problem. Searchin on the internt, news groups
and tutorials found a handful of tutorials, but all are different and
all have not helped me.

So, could anyone recommed any good tutorials, or even better help us
in the right direction.

Not to sure also about the windows configuration side, but every time
I utter the word windows in a search on google I get so many unrelated
pages.

Thanks for any help.

Jon

Mmm_moo_cows wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Sorry if this is a well worn topic, but been searching out there for
> the past week and I'm getting nowhere,dont want to go back to windows
> XP!
>
> Could anyone reccomend a good (basic) networking tutorial for a
> beginner in linux. I have setup modem and internet, but would like to
> share internet to 4 windows XP pc's and I amd completely stuck and
> tutorials on the web I have found just dont help.
>
> In a bit more detail,
>
> New to linux and having a bit of trouble networking. I'm in a student
> house, 4pc's running win xp and a server pc. This server pc was
> sharing the internet connection (adsl) and acting as a fileserver.
> However, with windows XP I'm having to reinstall it every month
> becuase it just slows down after a bit then crashes all the time (no
> idea why) which is why I want to change it to a unix/linux server.
>
> So, bought redhat (not too sure which version, a new one maybe 9 (has
> iptables)). Managed to install it fine. Got some drivers for my
> modem (bt voyager -EciADSL drivers from http://eciadsl.flashtux.org/)
> and got all that setup, so I now have the internet installed and
> working.
>
> My trouble lies in basic networking and sharing the internet
> connection. My network car has been recognised by redhat and it seems
> to be installed.
>
> I ran netconfig from the console and assigned it 192.168.0.1 adresses
> with matching gateway etc address (it filled it in one the main ip was
> entered).
>
> however, I cannot seem to ping it from my windows xp machine (I thinlk
> I havent set it up correctly).
>
> So here comes my real problem. Searchin on the internt, news groups
> and tutorials found a handful of tutorials, but all are different and
> all have not helped me.
>
> So, could anyone recommed any good tutorials, or even better help us
> in the right direction.
>
> Not to sure also about the windows configuration side, but every time
> I utter the word windows in a search on google I get so many unrelated
> pages.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Jon

Networking tutorials:
---------------------

Have you waded through the HOWTO documents in the Linux Documentation
Project (<http://www.tldp.org/>)?

The Networking-Overview-HOWTO is a good starting point.

For a deeper understanding of the TCP/IP networking, my favourites
are the books by the late W. Richard Stevens (google for the name).
Be warned: there are thousands of pages to read.

Your server:
------------

You are pretty well off if the router computer sees the connection
to the ISP.

You need two netrwork interfaces in the computer: one for the
outward Net and the other for the internal shared network.

The outward net IP address and netmask come from the ISP, either
by DHCP or statically assigned.

The internal network should be picked from the RFC 1918 networks:

10 0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
172. 16.0.0 to 172. 31.255.255
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

Some ISP's like to use also one of these, usually the 10.x.y.z.
If this is the case, please pick another. 192.168.123.x is often
safe to use.

To access the outside world, you need two things in the router:
- forward packets between internal and external nets,
- translate internal addresses so they are acceptable
in the outside network.

The first thing is achieved by enabling forwarding in the router.

The second thing is called IP masquerading or source NAT. The Linux
iptables handler is able to do it.

There is a third thing needed: firewalling the Microsoft computers,
so that the external network cannot initiate connections, to keep
all binary active contents (worms, viruses & co) out.

There is a series of HOWTOs
<http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO/packet-filtering-HOWTO.html>
about the set-up of iptables.

For file service with Windows units, Linux has to learn
Microsoftese. The package is called Samba. There are also
good HOWTOs how to use it.

HTH

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

"Mmm_moo_cows" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hello,
>
> Sorry if this is a well worn topic, but been searching out there for
> the past week and I'm getting nowhere,dont want to go back to windows
> XP!
>
> Could anyone reccomend a good (basic) networking tutorial for a
> beginner in linux. I have setup modem and internet, but would like to
> share internet to 4 windows XP pc's and I amd completely stuck and
> tutorials on the web I have found just dont help.
>
> In a bit more detail,
>
> New to linux and having a bit of trouble networking. I'm in a student
> house, 4pc's running win xp and a server pc. This server pc was
> sharing the internet connection (adsl) and acting as a fileserver.
> However, with windows XP I'm having to reinstall it every month
> becuase it just slows down after a bit then crashes all the time (no
> idea why) which is why I want to change it to a unix/linux server.
>
> So, bought redhat (not too sure which version, a new one maybe 9 (has
> iptables)). Managed to install it fine. Got some drivers for my
> modem (bt voyager -EciADSL drivers from http://eciadsl.flashtux.org/)
> and got all that setup, so I now have the internet installed and
> working.
>
> My trouble lies in basic networking and sharing the internet
> connection. My network car has been recognised by redhat and it seems
> to be installed.
>
> I ran netconfig from the console and assigned it 192.168.0.1 adresses
> with matching gateway etc address (it filled it in one the main ip was
> entered).
>
> however, I cannot seem to ping it from my windows xp machine (I thinlk
> I havent set it up correctly).
>
> So here comes my real problem. Searchin on the internt, news groups
> and tutorials found a handful of tutorials, but all are different and
> all have not helped me.
>
> So, could anyone recommed any good tutorials, or even better help us
> in the right direction.
>
> Not to sure also about the windows configuration side, but every time
> I utter the word windows in a search on google I get so many unrelated
> pages.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Jon

I installed the Sarge Woody system to my computer
including Samba and all that using network install. I had Samba running on
this system without any tweaks at all. In other words I could see the Samba
share on
the new computer immediately with no modifications.

It took a few minor modications to use it as a file server. Running
smbpasswd on the new Sarge box.
And setting up a directory to share on the box and
adding the info to /etc/smb.conf

"Tauno Voipio" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:QkLld.275$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Mmm_moo_cows wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Sorry if this is a well worn topic, but been searching out there for
> > the past week and I'm getting nowhere,dont want to go back to windows
> > XP!
> >
> > Could anyone reccomend a good (basic) networking tutorial for a
> > beginner in linux. I have setup modem and internet, but would like to
> > share internet to 4 windows XP pc's and I amd completely stuck and
> > tutorials on the web I have found just dont help.
> >
> > In a bit more detail,
> >
> > New to linux and having a bit of trouble networking. I'm in a student
> > house, 4pc's running win xp and a server pc. This server pc was
> > sharing the internet connection (adsl) and acting as a fileserver.
> > However, with windows XP I'm having to reinstall it every month
> > becuase it just slows down after a bit then crashes all the time (no
> > idea why) which is why I want to change it to a unix/linux server.
> >
> > So, bought redhat (not too sure which version, a new one maybe 9 (has
> > iptables)). Managed to install it fine. Got some drivers for my
> > modem (bt voyager -EciADSL drivers from http://eciadsl.flashtux.org/)
> > and got all that setup, so I now have the internet installed and
> > working.
> >
> > My trouble lies in basic networking and sharing the internet
> > connection. My network car has been recognised by redhat and it seems
> > to be installed.
> >
> > I ran netconfig from the console and assigned it 192.168.0.1 adresses
> > with matching gateway etc address (it filled it in one the main ip was
> > entered).
> >
> > however, I cannot seem to ping it from my windows xp machine (I thinlk
> > I havent set it up correctly).
> >
> > So here comes my real problem. Searchin on the internt, news groups
> > and tutorials found a handful of tutorials, but all are different and
> > all have not helped me.
> >
> > So, could anyone recommed any good tutorials, or even better help us
> > in the right direction.
> >
> > Not to sure also about the windows configuration side, but every time
> > I utter the word windows in a search on google I get so many unrelated
> > pages.
> >
> > Thanks for any help.
> >
> > Jon
>
> Networking tutorials:
> ---------------------
>
> Have you waded through the HOWTO documents in the Linux Documentation
> Project (<http://www.tldp.org/>)?
>
> The Networking-Overview-HOWTO is a good starting point.
>
> For a deeper understanding of the TCP/IP networking, my favourites
> are the books by the late W. Richard Stevens (google for the name).
> Be warned: there are thousands of pages to read.
>
> Your server:
> ------------
>
> You are pretty well off if the router computer sees the connection
> to the ISP.
>
> You need two netrwork interfaces in the computer: one for the
> outward Net and the other for the internal shared network.
>
> The outward net IP address and netmask come from the ISP, either
> by DHCP or statically assigned.
>
> The internal network should be picked from the RFC 1918 networks:
>
> 10 0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
> 172. 16.0.0 to 172. 31.255.255
> 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
>
> Some ISP's like to use also one of these, usually the 10.x.y.z.
> If this is the case, please pick another. 192.168.123.x is often
> safe to use.
>
> To access the outside world, you need two things in the router:
> - forward packets between internal and external nets,
> - translate internal addresses so they are acceptable
> in the outside network.
>
> The first thing is achieved by enabling forwarding in the router.
>
> The second thing is called IP masquerading or source NAT. The Linux
> iptables handler is able to do it.
>
> There is a third thing needed: firewalling the Microsoft computers,
> so that the external network cannot initiate connections, to keep
> all binary active contents (worms, viruses & co) out.
>
> There is a series of HOWTOs
> <http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO/packet-filtering-HOWTO.html>
> about the set-up of iptables.
>
> For file service with Windows units, Linux has to learn
> Microsoftese. The package is called Samba. There are also
> good HOWTOs how to use it.
>
> HTH
>
> --
>
> Tauno Voipio
> tauno voipio (at) iki fi
>

I think the Stevens book is a bit much for this problem.

Perhaps he should also take out a book on quantum
physics so he can understand how the chips work.

Mmm_moo_cows wrote:
> so I now have the internet installed and
> working.

Excellent stuff.


> I ran netconfig from the console and assigned it 192.168.0.1 adresses
> with matching gateway etc address (it filled it in one the main ip was
> entered).

You don't need a gateway address for this interface (leave it blank).



> however, I cannot seem to ping it from my windows xp machine (I thinlk
> I havent set it up correctly).

How are the Windows machines getting their IP addresses? You will need
to set these to 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3 etc. Their gateway address is
192.168.0.1.


They also need access to a DNS server. To get things working, use the
values for your ISP's server (you should these on the Linux box in
/etc/resolv.conf).


You also need to tell the Linux PC to forward IP packets:
Put "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" in /etc/sysctl.conf
To save rebooting, also do "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward" as root.

You will also need to configure NAT:
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

(Change eth0 to whatever your ethernet card is).


Once you've got this working you can then look at setting up DHCP for
your internal network along with a DNS server so that the internal
Windows machines are not tied to the ISP configuration. But you can
leave that for another day.

Paul

Paul Black wrote:

>
> Once you've got this working you can then look at setting up DHCP for
> your internal network along with a DNS server so that the internal
> Windows machines are not tied to the ISP configuration. But you can
> leave that for another day.
>

For the DNS server forget BIND. It is much too heavy for the
simple task at hand. Use dnsmasq instead.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

"Mmm_moo_cows" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hello,
>
> Sorry if this is a well worn topic, but been searching out there for
> the past week and I'm getting nowhere,dont want to go back to windows
> XP!
>
> Could anyone reccomend a good (basic) networking tutorial for a
> beginner in linux. I have setup modem and internet, but would like to
> share internet to 4 windows XP pc's and I amd completely stuck and
> tutorials on the web I have found just dont help.
>
> In a bit more detail,
>
> New to linux and having a bit of trouble networking. I'm in a student
> house, 4pc's running win xp and a server pc. This server pc was
> sharing the internet connection (adsl) and acting as a fileserver.
> However, with windows XP I'm having to reinstall it every month
> becuase it just slows down after a bit then crashes all the time (no
> idea why) which is why I want to change it to a unix/linux server.
>
> So, bought redhat (not too sure which version, a new one maybe 9 (has
> iptables)). Managed to install it fine. Got some drivers for my
> modem (bt voyager -EciADSL drivers from http://eciadsl.flashtux.org/)
> and got all that setup, so I now have the internet installed and
> working.
>
> My trouble lies in basic networking and sharing the internet
> connection. My network car has been recognised by redhat and it seems
> to be installed.
>
> I ran netconfig from the console and assigned it 192.168.0.1 adresses
> with matching gateway etc address (it filled it in one the main ip was
> entered).
>
> however, I cannot seem to ping it from my windows xp machine (I thinlk
> I havent set it up correctly).
>
> So here comes my real problem. Searchin on the internt, news groups
> and tutorials found a handful of tutorials, but all are different and
> all have not helped me.
>
> So, could anyone recommed any good tutorials, or even better help us
> in the right direction.
>
> Not to sure also about the windows configuration side, but every time
> I utter the word windows in a search on google I get so many unrelated
> pages.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Jon

You left out an important piece of hardware that you
have. What is your modem attached to? I dont think
that XP can serve as a dhcp server, so you must also
have a router or a switch. This box is probably
serving IP addresses to your computers.

Run the command ifconfig on you linux box and see
what ip address has been assigned to it. You should
be able to ping this address from you XP boxes.

"Tauno Voipio" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:tNPld.463$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Paul Black wrote:
>
> >
> > Once you've got this working you can then look at setting up DHCP for
> > your internal network along with a DNS server so that the internal
> > Windows machines are not tied to the ISP configuration. But you can
> > leave that for another day.
> >
>
> For the DNS server forget BIND. It is much too heavy for the
> simple task at hand. Use dnsmasq instead.
>
> --
>
> Tauno Voipio
> tauno voipio (at) iki fi
>

I am not so sure that dnsmasq works or is supported.

Whatever the documentation for this application is
very light.

tom wrote:
> "Tauno Voipio" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:tNPld.463$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>Paul Black wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Once you've got this working you can then look at setting up DHCP for
>>>your internal network along with a DNS server so that the internal
>>>Windows machines are not tied to the ISP configuration. But you can
>>>leave that for another day.
>>>
>>
>>For the DNS server forget BIND. It is much too heavy for the
>>simple task at hand. Use dnsmasq instead.
>>
>>--
>>
>>Tauno Voipio
>>tauno voipio (at) iki fi
>>
>
>
> I am not so sure that dnsmasq works or is supported.
>
> Whatever the documentation for this application is
> very light.
>

I'm running using dnsmasq just now.

It is able to cache and forward the DNS responses from the
upstream server and also internal network DNS data from
/etc/hosts of the router host, so you can handle all
the DNS in the internal network by maintaining the
/etc/hosts file and pointing all the internal computers
to use services from dnsmasq.

The one-pager of dnsmasq is well sufficient for the
quite simple job it has to do. BIND has plenty more
of documentation, as it is much more complicated
to set up.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

Hi,

Thanks so much for all of your help, it is very much appreciated.
Unfortunately, I have not got it working and even worse, I'm
approaching the final stages of my post-grad semester and am a little
pushed for time to say the least, so its back to windows XP .

I got so close though, machines could ping each other, samba worked and
I could access folders on the linux pc from windows boxes (even though
after a few hours it magically stopped itself, hmm) and the internet
stayed connected perfectly - but the coursework deadlines are looming!

I have saved all your responses, so when I have some spare time I'll
try it again (you may hear from me again in the future!)
Thanks again for all your help, much appreciated

Cheers, Jon