NEWBIE QUETION: Setting up dynamic IP under Redhat

Greetings:

I am interested in connecting my laptop running Redhat to our
intranet. The laptop is configure to interface with my home
peer-to-peer network. Each PC has a hardcoded IP address. But in our
office, the Windows PC's are set with "Obtain IP Address
Automatically". I am not sure how to duplicate this setting under
linux.

Avice and assistance is appreciated.

Thanx!

Quiet Voice wrote:
> Greetings:
>
> I am interested in connecting my laptop running Redhat to our
> intranet. The laptop is configure to interface with my home
> peer-to-peer network. Each PC has a hardcoded IP address. But in our
> office, the Windows PC's are set with "Obtain IP Address
> Automatically". I am not sure how to duplicate this setting under
> linux.

I haven't played around with automatic configuration (a.k.a., "zero
configuration" [zeroconf]) on Linux, but if you perform a Google search

http://www.google.com

using keywords like

linux "link local" IP address dynamic OR automatic configuration

this should get you started.

--
Jim

To reply by email, remove "link" and change "now.here" to "yahoo"
jfischer_link5809{at}now.here.com

In your /sbin dir you should have one of the following dhcp clients: pump,
dchpcd, dhcpxd, dhclient. Find out which you have and check the man pages
on it.

Hope that helps! :-)

Rick

"Quiet Voice" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Greetings:
>
> I am interested in connecting my laptop running Redhat to our
> intranet. The laptop is configure to interface with my home
> peer-to-peer network. Each PC has a hardcoded IP address. But in our
> office, the Windows PC's are set with "Obtain IP Address
> Automatically". I am not sure how to duplicate this setting under
> linux.
>
> Avice and assistance is appreciated.
>
> Thanx!

Quiet Voice wrote:
> Greetings:
>
> I am interested in connecting my laptop running Redhat to our
> intranet. The laptop is configure to interface with my home
> peer-to-peer network. Each PC has a hardcoded IP address. But in our
> office, the Windows PC's are set with "Obtain IP Address
> Automatically". I am not sure how to duplicate this setting under
> linux.

I think I misunderstood your question (see my other/previous post in
this message thread). If your goal is to enable DHCP support on your
Linux box when you're at work, you'll need to tell us which version of
Red Hat Linux you're using.

If (and only if) you happen to be using Red Hat 9 (RH9), click on the
"Red Hat" button on the GNOME/KDE task bar and then select the "System
Settings -> Network" option. This will open the "Network Configuration"
dialog.

On the "Network Configuration" dialog, click on the "Devices" tab (if
necessary).

Now visit

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/

and select the link "Customization Guide" link. When you see the table
of contents for the RH9 Customization Guide, scroll down the page and
look for chapter 12, "Network Configuration". I'm *guessing* that you
need to create two network "profiles" for your laptop - i.e., a network
profile for home use and another for work use. Section 12.12, "Working
With Profiles" should get you started.

Caveat: I've never tried setting up / using different profiles myself.
So I can't offer any advice as to how well this works, or how "good" the
related documentation is in chapter 12 of the RH9 Customization Guide.
FWIW, you should probably read all of chapter 12 - except, perhaps, for
the sub-chapters that discuss network types (e.g., token ring, CIPE,
etc.) that you are not currently using.

Also: The network administrator at your place of work might need to a)
harvest some info from your laptop (e.g., the Ethernet card's MAC
address), and/or b) assign your laptop a DHCP identifier. Note that
network admins commonly configure the company's DHCP server so that it
only responds to DHCP requests from specific hosts (as a security
measure). So they might need to configure the DHCP server and your
laptop both in order for you to have DHCP support at work.

--
Jim

To reply by email, remove "link" and change "now.here" to "yahoo"
jfischer_link5809{at}now.here.com

Thank you very much for your comprehensive response. In one sense, I'm
glad to see that it is not a "trivial" process.......if so, then I'd
have felt stupid for not being to get it right the first time! :-)

I have downloaded the pdf manuals listed on the pasge you pointed to
and get back to you the results of my efforts.

Thank you again.

Jim Fischer <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<vvU7b.7644$(E-Mail Removed)> ...
> Quiet Voice wrote:
> > Greetings:
> >
> > I am interested in connecting my laptop running Redhat to our
> > intranet. The laptop is configure to interface with my home
> > peer-to-peer network. Each PC has a hardcoded IP address. But in our
> > office, the Windows PC's are set with "Obtain IP Address
> > Automatically". I am not sure how to duplicate this setting under
> > linux.
>
> I think I misunderstood your question (see my other/previous post in
> this message thread). If your goal is to enable DHCP support on your
> Linux box when you're at work, you'll need to tell us which version of
> Red Hat Linux you're using.
>
> If (and only if) you happen to be using Red Hat 9 (RH9), click on the
> "Red Hat" button on the GNOME/KDE task bar and then select the "System
> Settings -> Network" option. This will open the "Network Configuration"
> dialog.
>
> On the "Network Configuration" dialog, click on the "Devices" tab (if
> necessary).
>
> Now visit
>
> http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/
>
> and select the link "Customization Guide" link. When you see the table
> of contents for the RH9 Customization Guide, scroll down the page and
> look for chapter 12, "Network Configuration". I'm *guessing* that you
> need to create two network "profiles" for your laptop - i.e., a network
> profile for home use and another for work use. Section 12.12, "Working
> With Profiles" should get you started.
>
> Caveat: I've never tried setting up / using different profiles myself.
> So I can't offer any advice as to how well this works, or how "good" the
> related documentation is in chapter 12 of the RH9 Customization Guide.
> FWIW, you should probably read all of chapter 12 - except, perhaps, for
> the sub-chapters that discuss network types (e.g., token ring, CIPE,
> etc.) that you are not currently using.
>
> Also: The network administrator at your place of work might need to a)
> harvest some info from your laptop (e.g., the Ethernet card's MAC
> address), and/or b) assign your laptop a DHCP identifier. Note that
> network admins commonly configure the company's DHCP server so that it
> only responds to DHCP requests from specific hosts (as a security
> measure). So they might need to configure the DHCP server and your
> laptop both in order for you to have DHCP support at work.

Quiet Voice wrote:
> Thank you very much for your comprehensive response. In one sense, I'm
> glad to see that it is not a "trivial" process.......if so, then I'd
> have felt stupid for not being to get it right the first time! :-)
>
> I have downloaded the pdf manuals listed on the pasge you pointed to
> and get back to you the results of my efforts.

One more thing... I was playing with RH9's "network profiles" feature
today and noticed that the iptables firewall settings are not modified
in response to a profile change. Specifically, I created two network
profiles named "home" and "demo" that use the following networks:

home: eth0 (alias: eth0home) 192.168.5.x/25
demo: eth0 (alias: eth0demo) 10.55.x.x/16

I initially configured the firewall software for the 192.168.5/24
network - i.e., the "home" profile. I then changed the network profile
to "demo" (via the '/usr/bin/redhat-control-network' program) and
noticed that the iptables firewall settings had not changed; the
firewall was still configured for the 192.168.5/24 network. This is
actually a "good thing" IMO - i.e., it is unlikely your "home" and
"work" firewall settings will be identical - but this is a potential
"gotcha" if you're unaware of it.

So if you are running the iptables firewall software on your RH9 box
(and you should!), be aware that: a) each network profile (e.g., "home"
and "work") potentially requires a separate iptables firewall setup, and
b) you need to perform the iptables firewall setup yourself; the
'/usr/bin/redhat-*-network' programs do not automatically modify the
firewall settings when you switch profiles.

--
Jim

To reply by email, remove "link" and change "now.here" to "yahoo"
jfischer_link5809{at}now.here.com