setting up a local network

Hi

I am trying to set up a local network using the Class C addies
192.168.xxx.xxx.

Initially I am starting simple and adding a laptop to what was a standalone
machine. (I intend later to add a simple router device and then connect
laptop and eventually other boxes to the router which will be connected to the
box. I just want a simple network to monitor and play with for the moment.)

I have a Cat 5 x-over cable to connect between my box and my laptop

I have managed to succesfully configure my ethernet card on the laptop with
it's own static IP address and a route to my box's eth0.

The box has an SMC1244TX card installed which I had previously
configured to a static IP 192.168 address.

I have a ppp0 connection to the Internet which gives me a different fixed IP
address.

Initially I connected up the laptop and the box with no routing info set up on
either. All that was set up was the IP addresses on the respective eth0's.
(And they were different IP addresses ).

The main box froze. Couldn't get any response except from the on off button.
So I powered down and spent some time fscking and checking system integrity.

I have since set up the laptop to have a default gateway of the box's eth0 IP
address.

I have not yet tried to reconect the laptop to the box because I seem to have
lost the eth0 interface on the box.

Using the /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o I get a failure
insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o: insmod eth0 failed

in my syslog and my eth0 interface doesn't come up.

So my first problem seems to be to find out what's wrong with the eth0
interface on the box.

I'm using SuSE 8.2 and YaST2 shows the eth0 card with the previously
configured IP address; all sound and correct. ifconfig eth0 gives

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

I need to work out what's gone wrong so that I can fix it but I am not getting
much help from anything.

Would someone say what module I am meant to use with the SMC1244TX?

The next thing I need to suss out is how to maintain the lan info in the
resolv.conf and routing info so that the Internet connection stuff is appended
rather than overwrites the lan info.

Any pointers to further good reading or help in pointing out what's going wrong?

Regards, TIA and apologies for a FAQ

Lesley

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi

> I am trying to set up a local network using the Class C addies
> 192.168.xxx.xxx.

> Initially I am starting simple and adding a laptop to what was a
> standalone machine. (I intend later to add a simple router device
> and then connect laptop and eventually other boxes to the router
> which will be connected to the box. I just want a simple network
> to monitor and play with for the moment.)

> I have a Cat 5 x-over cable to connect between my box and my laptop

Self-made cross-over cable or purchased? I think it's easy to make
a wiring mistake.

> I have managed to succesfully configure my ethernet card on the
> laptop with it's own static IP address and a route to my box's eth0.

> The box has an SMC1244TX card installed which I had previously
> configured to a static IP 192.168 address.

This sounds like the card was working. Does "previously" mean you
configured the card before connecting the cross-over cable?

> I have a ppp0 connection to the Internet which gives me a different
> fixed IP address.

> Initially I connected up the laptop and the box with no routing
> info set up on either. All that was set up was the IP addresses
> on the respective eth0's. (And they were different IP addresses ).

> The main box froze. Couldn't get any response except from the
> on off button. So I powered down and spent some time fscking and
> checking system integrity.

Hardware is the most likely cause of a host freezing under Linux.

> I have since set up the laptop to have a default gateway of the
> box's eth0 IP address.

> I have not yet tried to reconect the laptop to the box because I
> seem to have lost the eth0 interface on the box.

> Using the /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o I
> get a failure
> insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o:
> insmod eth0 failed

> in my syslog and my eth0 interface doesn't come up.

> So my first problem seems to be to find out what's wrong with the
> eth0 interface on the box.

If you were able insert the module and configure the box before
connecting the cross-over cable then it sounds like the card was
somehow damaged by the connection.

> I'm using SuSE 8.2 and YaST2 shows the eth0 card with the previously
> configured IP address; all sound and correct. ifconfig eth0 gives

> eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

Dunno what YaST2 is, but clearly eth0 does not exist if ifconfig can't
find it. Since the module insertion failed that should be no surprise.

> I need to work out what's gone wrong so that I can fix it but I am
> not getting much help from anything.

> Would someone say what module I am meant to use with the SMC1244TX?

If the card could be configured with rtl8139.o in place before the
cross-over cable was connected then it's probably dead now. There
may be a slight chance there is an interrupt conflict, but I've never
seen a post where that caused a host to freeze.

> The next thing I need to suss out is how to maintain the lan info
> in the resolv.conf and routing info so that the Internet connection
> stuff is appended rather than overwrites the lan info.

This is a common problem with distributions that are trying too hard to
make things "easier" for the user. I suspect in all cases some script
is overwriting resolv.conf with the file /etc/ppp/resolv.conf that pppd
creates when the option usepeerdns is present. One solution *may* be
to remove the usepeerdns option from any pppd configuration file found
in /etc/ppp and to remove /etc/ppp/resolv.conf. No guarantee.

But there's also no guarantee that the next reboot won't put it back
in unless SuSE provides a way to configure to prevent using DNS servers
provided by the peer. DNS servers should not change more than once in
a blue moon so it should be sufficient to simply put the IP addresses
in /etc/resolv.conf.

> Any pointers to further good reading or help in pointing out what's
going wrong?

> Regards, TIA and apologies for a FAQ

> Lesley

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