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byrdman
09-24-2005, 02:31 PM
System is
cable modem
Linksys 5 port router
Linksys NIC (in WinXP home boxes, Kingston in Win98SE box)
Various laptops with WinXP (NTFS) or Win98SE (FAT32) or Slax live CD running, plugged into the LAN, on occasion

When I boot Knoppix DVD 4 (from the DVD with a small ext2 partition on HDD for save config), I can't see anyone else on the LAN, I am unable to ping the other machines. I can use the internet in Knoppix (and Slax).

No problem with internet connection. All the Win machines can see each other, and access all the files across the LAN, and access the internet. I would like to connect the Knoppix (or Slax) to the LAN for file backups.

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 02:37 PM
I am unable to ping the other machines. I can use the internet
My guess is that a firewall issue on the Win boxes is blocking your pings (and other traffic). Can you ping the Linksys router? Can you ping the Knoppix box from the Windows systems?

byrdman
09-24-2005, 03:37 PM
Can't ping from Win98SE or WinXPSP2 to Linux, don't see router. Firewall for XP is off, I have PCCillin AV and Firewall, I have tried unplugging cable modem, turning off PCCillin and rebooting everything, still can't see each other on the LAN. Nothing will showup in My Network Places or LinNeighbborhood.

rwcitek
09-24-2005, 04:35 PM
Can't ping from Win98SE or WinXPSP2 to Linux, don't see router. Firewall for XP is off, I have PCCillin AV and Firewall, I have tried unplugging cable modem, turning off PCCillin and rebooting everything, still can't see each other on the LAN. Nothing will showup in My Network Places or LinNeighbborhood.
Open up a terminal window and type the following code:

(set -x
ifconfig -a
lsmod
lspci
ping -c 1 localhost
) >& post.txt
Please post the output from post.txt here.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 04:39 PM
Can't ping from Win98SE or WinXPSP2 to Linux, don't see router.
don't see router from Knoppix, or don't even see router from Windows? Either way it makes no sense, but it will help to be very precise here if we are going to spot what is wrong and not make assumptions.

It's time to post all details. Local IP addresses (there is no reason to keep these hidden as they can't be reached by the Interner anyway). Post the output of ifconfig on Knoppix and ipconfig on the Windows boxes. We need IP addresses as well as masks and the rest. And post the model of that Linksys router, and anything else that you can think of that may help. Look over all of the web setup information in the router for clues.


Firewall for XP is off
You're sure for the XP system that you are not also running the damn Windows firewall, that is turned on by default in SP2? Boy, this sure looks like a firewall issue. Can't be a MAC filter issue in the router or you couldn't get to the Internet.


I have tried unplugging cable modem,
That one doesn't make much sense to me, since all systems were getting to the Internet just fine. It has to be more local.


still can't see each other on the LAN. Nothing will showup in My Network Places or LinNeighbborhood.
I'm not concerned about getting networking working yet. There are some issues that it works differently between XP and 98, having both on your system you may need to make a few setting just right to get everyone on the same page. But you are not going to get networking going if you can't even ping, so I would focus on that first.

You are trying to ping the windows boxes (and the knoppix box from windows) by IP address and not by name, are you not? As in ping 192.168.0.100 ? Are you 100% certain that you are using the correct IP addresses?

One thing that you may have to resort to is to watch the low level packet trafic as you try to ping the systems. Knoppix has Ethereal which is great for this purpose. I suspect if you watch an attempted ping from Knoppix you will see the ping packet go out but just never see a response (if you don't see the ping go out then that tells us something is wrong). But I suspect that if you watch the NIC (eth0) with ethereal and then ping the Knoppix system from windows you will see the ping (ICMP) packet come in and the response packet go back out. It would be worth examining the addresses closely in those packets but I still want to think that it will be a Windows firewall issue (although 98 has no default firewall, weakening that theory).

byrdman
09-24-2005, 05:46 PM
Linksys 5 port router with uplink, model #EZXS55W, NIC Linksys LNE 100T x Version 2.0 Fast, Cable modem is Linksys model BEFCMU10 Ver. 2

Knoppix DVD live

root@1[knoppix]# ifconfig
+ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:A0:CC:37:0F:8D
inet addr:68.187.92.72 Bcasst:255.255.255.255 Mask:255.255.240.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2a0:ccff:fe37:f8d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 METRIC:1
RX packets:66544 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:11669 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:7
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:48144556 (45.9MiB) TX bytes:2969069 (2.8MiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x8400

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:46 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:46 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:7
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2555 (2.4 KiB) TX bytes:2555 (2.4KiB)


WinXP home (SP2, confirmed Windows firewall is off)
c:\ipconfig
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : eau.wi.charter.com
IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.112.201.16
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.248.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.112.200.1

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 06:16 PM
[quote=byrdman]
inet addr:68.187.92.72 Bcasst:255.255.255.255 Mask:255.255.240.0

IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.112.201.16
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.248.0


Is there something that you want to tell us about your IP addresses? This is very untypical for IP addresses on a Linksys router.

Normally I would expect a user to have one IP address assigned by an ISP, and this address to be shared by the different computers attached to the router. They do this sharing by NAT, the router assigns each computer a private IP address usually in the 192.168.x.y range, where X is usually 0 1 or 2 depending on the router and Y is a range of local ip addresses that the router hands out.

ipconfig and ifconfig should reflect these local private addresses, but they do not, they show public addresses, and two different ones. Also, you seem to be showing two very different public IP addresses 68.187.92.72 and 68.112.201.16 that are no where near being on the same subnet (based on the subnet mask that you show). If you are going to have multiple IP addresses thay should really be on the same sub-net.

Do you buy multiple IP addresses from your ISP? Do you know why your router isn't handing out local 192.168.x.y addresses? When you talk (or ping) from Windows to windows system, what IP addresses are assinged to each system? And I'm still very curious about exactly what you type when you try to ping from each system.

Multiple public addresses might work, but it could well involve all local traffic looped through some part of your ISP's system, greatly slowing throughput. But there is a lot going on here that isn't clear yet.

byrdman
09-24-2005, 06:28 PM
our system allows 3 IP addresses per customer

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 06:50 PM
our system allows 3 IP addresses per customer
It may allow you three addresses per customer, but how you are keeping the Linksys router from taking one of those and then assigning local addresses to the computers is the key to this. That plus the 3 addresses you are getting not being on the same sub-net (they should if the computers are to consider each other local).

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 07:07 PM
Well, here's one key to the puzzle - you don't have a router at all!

The Linksys EZXS55W is a switch, not a router. See here (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1115416836711&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper).

So you have no router. You have no hardware firewall and the protection that comes with it. You have no NAT and no local private IP addresses. And you have an ISP handing out IP addresses to you that are not on the same subnet, based on the subnet mask that it is using. I'm unclear on how your windows systems talk to each other (you might want to post a traceroute between your xp and your win98 systems).

byrdman
09-24-2005, 07:57 PM
the guys at Best Buy sold me the "fastest router" Linksys had available. So all I bought is an expensive 5 port direct connection to the internet. In Windows, all I see are my machines, in my LAN, and I can transfer files between compuers, talk to each other, and everything works great. I need to contact my ISP.

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 08:17 PM
the guys at Best Buy sold me the "fastest router" Linksys had available.
Well, that is a load of BS, a switch isn't a router. And with the drop in prices of routers, it likely cost a lot more than a good router. Best Buy has recently sold wired 4 port Linksys BDFSR41 10/100 routers for $5 after rebate. Other places such as CompUSA have sold 4 port routers that also include wireless capability for about that same price ($2.99 to $9.99 after rebate, sometimes even with high speed 802.11g wifi capability).

You do want a router, it will provide you protection that you really need with a high speed connection, and just don't get when your local computers have exposed internet addresses (research NAT on Google for yourself for more info). And it will very likely resolve your ping issues (maybe not all of your networking issues between Linux and Windows though, as I said that is a complex issue, but the first step is to be able to ping).


So all I bought is an expensive 5 port direct connection to the internet. In Windows, all I see are my machines, in my LAN, and I can transfer files between compuers, talk to each other, and everything works great. I need to contact my ISP.
Not sure why you need to talk to your ISP when your gripe seems to be with Best Buy.

You also seem to be skipping things that I keep asking for. Like the exact syntax of the pings that do work and the traceroute between the Win98 and the XP system (which will tell us how the traffic is being routed). So I'll assume that you have enough information now and no longer want additional help.

Harry Kuhman
09-24-2005, 09:13 PM
In Windows, all I see are my machines, in my LAN, and I can transfer files between compuers, talk to each other, and everything works great. I need to contact my ISP.
I see now that you chose to hide information in a new subject line. Cute but not a smart thing to do when you are trying to communicate with someone who doesn't expect to have to search all over the page to find what you write.

As to being able to network and transfer files between computers, I suspect that you don't know the half of it. With those exposed IP addresses and no router, you can and very likely do share your files with people all over the Internet. Your software firewall might tend to slow some of them down (can never be depended upon to protect you fully), but I strongly suspect that you don't have the networking background to configure it to do that well. That's not intended as a dig against you, but just an observation that if you didn't know that you didn't have a router that your expertise is likely to be in other areas. In short, you don't have a Local Area Network, you have a WAN, and you really need to take a lot of steps to shut it down a.s.a.p. and do some serious scanning of those computers, install a hardware firewall, and reflect on what important private information (banking info, passwords, tax files and so on) may have been compromised and what you need to do to start protecting yourself (like closing out any account that you had information on in the computer and opening new accounts).

byrdman
09-24-2005, 09:51 PM
Harry,

I wan't trying to trick you, or pull something over on you. Since my stroke last year it's difficult for me to type as fast as I could. I was trying to comply with all your requests. I have to take my time and sometimes double check your requests to accurately describe my computer and information. Anyway thanks for all your help.

Rod