Comments | murstein: What am I missing?

murstein

What am I missing?

Sep 16, 2007 17:04

I live in a home with two computer users, and one DSL line. Over the couple of years this has been a two-computer house, I've tried to share connections with two separate, purchased external routers. No success ( Read more... )

geek, linux, network

Comments 11

brashley46 September 16 2007, 21:45:22 UTC

I guess I'm not enough of a geek, I just don't understand what may be going on. You do have each of the two boxen configured and enabled to share files across the network, no? You've enabled specific directories on each box to be shared? You have rebooted each of your boxen after hooking the up?

Do you have konqueror on your Linux box? It should have a Network Files button, which should see the Windows box. Do you have password security enabled on each box? It will ask you for the password and identity.

If you're running a Gnome desktop manager instead of KDE on the Linux box, you may be using epiphany instead of konqueror. Should work about the same. What distro did you install?

murstein September 18 2007, 01:11:01 UTC

Do you have konqueror on your Linux box?

I do now. I'd thought it was just another of the 20,000 Linux-based web browsers out there, and it wasn't an automatic part of my Ubuntu install, so I didn't bother.

I have "advanced" to the point where we see each other's computers on network shares, but authentication fails either way.

It will ask you for the password and identity.

Yep. And then ask again, and again, and . . .

I also discovered software that is supposed to make my system a DHCP server for the local network -- which was the point of the exercise to begin with. So far, though, the Windows box doesn't think the DHCP server has assigned it an IP address. I suspect that stuff like file sharing won't work until after the networking details are fixed. And they were the point when I began this exercise.

brashley46 September 18 2007, 01:23:16 UTC

Konqueror is practically an essential file browser, and it can read Windows and Mac files. Is the Winbox filesystem NTFS, or FAT32? NTFS is more difficult to read/write from a Linux box.

But that's parenthetical. You need networking expertise I don't have. My aDSL modem is wired to my Netgear router, which in turn feeds the Winbox when i have one, my Linux box, Sandie's Mac, and the wireless connection I use for my Zaurus. It just works, except the router is needig to be rebooted and reconfigured more and more often - but it's 4 years old and past its best-by date. I need another Netgear, preferably with built-in wireless this time.

Which leads me to ask which brand of routers you've tried?

murstein September 19 2007, 01:37:14 UTC

I dug the last one that failed to work, and it was, in fact, a Netgear. It routed pretty well -- to one of the systems in the house, but not the other.

Perhaps it was just a bad model. Perhaps I need to spend as much time researching models, as I wasted trying to get that router to work, before buying my next one.

jojomojo September 17 2007, 02:33:48 UTC

Hm, no clue off the top of my head, and I'm a programmer not a sysadmin, but I have been a Linux guy for about 12 years now and I've set up Linux-box-as-gateway setups before. I could come round and poke it with a sharp stick for you sometime if you like :)

brashley46 September 18 2007, 01:26:18 UTC

If jojomojo can get his hands on your keyboard etc. he's probably your best bet.

davebooth September 17 2007, 13:37:45 UTC

I've a Fedora-based network running here, with one older machine as a dedicated gateway.. if you want to talk realtime about it drop me an email to dbooth at us dot ibm dot com and we can probably find an IM network to hook up on provided theres one machine you can get online with...

hearthdiva September 22 2007, 18:16:52 UTC

Why don't you call Liz? She doesn't really go on LJ, but she's good at setting all this up, and has Linux on her computer.

crm17 September 22 2007, 19:17:31 UTC

How new is your DSL modem? Newer ones have a router built in and could get into a pissing match with another router if they are both trying to do DHCP.

Why do you need the linux box to be the router? Wouldn't it be easier to just get one dedicated hardware router and set that up? You mentioned trying with two routers - how come two?

murstein September 22 2007, 20:37:02 UTC

How new is your DSL modem?

It was the one Ameritech issued with DSL when I signed up, oh, some time in 2004 or 2005.

Why do you need the linux box to be the router? Wouldn't it be easier to just get one dedicated hardware router and set that up?

That was Plan A in 2005. Since I was feeling a financial pinch, I got the least expensive router I could find in a local PC guts store. After a couple of hundred hour trying to get it to work, I quit. Then dug out the receipt, and saw it was too late to take it back to the store.

You mentioned trying with two routers - how come two?
When I decided to try again in 2006, I went to a different PC store and bought the router they recommended. Again, a couple hundred hours were spent fighting with configurations, but it never functioned correctly ( ... )

crm17 September 24 2007, 16:16:23 UTC

Does your DSL require your machine to be registered? I would focus on the Windows box to start. Plug it directly into the DSL and make sure it works. If so, put the Linksys router in between the Win and the DSL. See if it works. If not, try cloning the MAC address of the Win into the Linksys using the config page (192.168.1.1).