Ethernet help, please...

I've tinkered with this for more than a year, on and off, and am getting
really frustrated.

I've got an older AT PC running windows (my wife's machine). I partitioned
off room to set up Mdk 9.0, which she has started to use recently, so the
time has come to solve some old problems. The big problem is that although
the NIC works fine in windows (w98se), it does not work at all in Linux!!!
We file share on the LAN with Samba when she's in windows, but now she
wants to use Linux. File sharing has not come up as yet, but the big
hangup is that now Linux cannot even connect to the internet. Where
before, we were on dialup, which worked fine in Linux, we've now got ADSL
on the LAN and connect using our NICs. Love ADSL!!! My box has no
problems, but her's can only use windows... argh!!

Here's what I've got so far:

1) 'ifconfig' sees the NIC just fine. 'cat /proc/pci' shows the NIC just
fine.

2) Route table shows the loopback and the LAN address of the machine. Arp
table showed what was listed in /etc/hosts, but no MACs. So I added my
machine to the routing table and added the gateway. Added the MAC
addresses to the arp table. Arp asks for confirmation and gets nothing, so
doesn't retain the MAC information, apparently.

3) She can ping her loopback and her LAN address successfully, but nothing
else. tcpdump shows the arp table trying to get the MAC address for my
machine and the gateway, with no response. It also wants CUPS to connect
to the network, but so does mine and I ignore it. So the activity I would
expect to see is going on, but nothing gets in or out.

I would think that given the /etc/hosts information, the routing table info,
and the arp info, there should be no problem with connectivity. But
obviously I'm missing something here.

Has anyone got a clue about how I should proceed from here? Or please tell
me where I've blundered, if that be the case!!

Thanks all,

Bill Tallman
--
Registered Linux User: #221586
Mdk-9.0 and Slackware-9.1
A Luxuriance of Linux!!!

William D. Tallman <wtallman@olypen.com> wrote:


> [...] the big
> hangup is that now Linux cannot even connect to the internet. Where
> before, we were on dialup, which worked fine in Linux, we've now got ADSL
> on the LAN and connect using our NICs. Love ADSL!!! My box has no
> problems, but her's can only use windows... argh!!

How do you connect to your ISP? Via an ADSL HW NAT-Router
or do you establish the connection directly from your Linux
Box through an ADSL modem?


> Here's what I've got so far:
>
> 1) 'ifconfig' sees the NIC just fine. 'cat /proc/pci' shows the NIC
> just fine.
>
> 2) Route table shows the loopback and the LAN address of the machine.

Please post the output of "ifconfig" and "route -n".
Also describe your network topology more detailed (which devices
are interconnected, what's the function and the configuration of
these devices).


[...]
> 3) She can ping her loopback and her LAN address successfully, but
> nothing
> else. tcpdump shows the arp table trying to get the MAC address for my
> machine and the gateway, with no response. It also wants CUPS to connect
> to the network, but so does mine and I ignore it. So the activity I
> would expect to see is going on, but nothing gets in or out.

Do you use proper cabling? If you connect two PCs directly you
need a cross-over cable, otherwise (if you connect to a hub or
a switch) you need a straight-through cable. Check the LEDs
on your NICs and hub or switch. If you plug-in the cable a
(green) LED should be switched on, it should be switched off
again if you plug out the cable. Most NICs and hubs/switches
have an activity LED, this LED is flickering if there is something
transmitted or received.

Ciao, Horst
--
»When pings go wrong (It hurts me too)« E.Clapton/E.James/P.Tscharn

"William D. Tallman" <wtallman@olypen.com> said:
>I've tinkered with this for more than a year, on and off, and am getting
>really frustrated.
....
>Here's what I've got so far:
>
>1) 'ifconfig' sees the NIC just fine. 'cat /proc/pci' shows the NIC just
>fine.

Ok.

>2) Route table shows the loopback and the LAN address of the machine. Arp
>table showed what was listed in /etc/hosts, but no MACs. So I added my
>machine to the routing table and added the gateway. Added the MAC
>addresses to the arp table. Arp asks for confirmation and gets nothing, so
>doesn't retain the MAC information, apparently.

Generally you wouldn't add MACs manually; in a regular set-up the only
place where you're concerned of MAC addresses is if you set up static
leases on a DHCP server.

>3) She can ping her loopback and her LAN address successfully, but nothing
>else. tcpdump shows the arp table trying to get the MAC address for my
>machine and the gateway, with no response.

So somehow sounds like the network interface isn't up properly.

As said in the other response, please describe your network set-up
(what is connected to what), and post output of "route -n" and
"ifconfig -a". Additionally, I'd like to see what mii-tool (or ethtool)
tells.
--
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Horst Knobloch wrote:

> William D. Tallman <wtallman@olypen.com> wrote:
>
>
>> [...] the big
>> hangup is that now Linux cannot even connect to the internet. Where
>> before, we were on dialup, which worked fine in Linux, we've now got ADSL
>> on the LAN and connect using our NICs. Love ADSL!!! My box has no
>> problems, but her's can only use windows... argh!!
>
> How do you connect to your ISP? Via an ADSL HW NAT-Router
> or do you establish the connection directly from your Linux
> Box through an ADSL modem?
<snip>

We have an ethernet LAN comprising two Linux boxes and a windows PC (my
wife's), using a NETGEAR FS108 switch. Thus there is a single network,
where the computers have LAN IP addresses, and to which the ActionTec 1524
modem (NAT-Router) is also connected and also has a LAN IP address.

At this point, it seems reasonable that the NIC does not like the IRQ that
Linux assigned it. Windows has it assigned IRQ11, and Linux at IRQ18. As
far as I know, there is no way to change this in software, so I'll have to
get into the box and do some shifting around. It's got a modem we no
longer need, and perhaps the NIC should go there.

If you can point me to a way of resolving this IRQ matter within Linux
itself, I'd appreciate it!

Bill Tallman
--
Registered Linux User: #221586
Mdk-9.0 and Slackware-9.1
A Luxuriance of Linux!!!

In article <1033emkgm98dn7c@corp.supernews.com>, wtallman@olypen.com
says...
> Horst Knobloch wrote:
>
> > William D. Tallman <wtallman@olypen.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> [...] the big
> >> hangup is that now Linux cannot even connect to the internet. Where
> >> before, we were on dialup, which worked fine in Linux, we've now got ADSL
> >> on the LAN and connect using our NICs. Love ADSL!!! My box has no
> >> problems, but her's can only use windows... argh!!
> >
> > How do you connect to your ISP? Via an ADSL HW NAT-Router
> > or do you establish the connection directly from your Linux
> > Box through an ADSL modem?
> <snip>
>
> We have an ethernet LAN comprising two Linux boxes and a windows PC (my
> wife's), using a NETGEAR FS108 switch. Thus there is a single network,
> where the computers have LAN IP addresses, and to which the ActionTec 1524
> modem (NAT-Router) is also connected and also has a LAN IP address.
>
> At this point, it seems reasonable that the NIC does not like the IRQ that
> Linux assigned it. Windows has it assigned IRQ11, and Linux at IRQ18.

If the card is PnP and the machine has PnP BIOS then the IRQ should be
assigned at startup by the Bios.

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