NWLink NetBIOS

[sn0wflake]

There's a network protocol in Windows XP named NWLink NetBIOS. What's the equivalent in Knoppix and how do I install it? I need NetBIOS because everything I upload to Knoppix is sent via the Internet and that's just too darn slow :)
I installed Knoppix the 21th. of March 2004 and I've loved it since. I know how to join a Windows 2003 domain, how to share files with Samba, and my TV-tuner works without freezing my PC :)

Note: I actually posted this message in Knoppix without even thinking about it :D

[garyng]

Netbios over IPX/SPX(i.e. the Netware protocol, I believe that is the NW means) ?

However, why do you need that ? Almost everyone is using Netbios over TCP/IP like Samba. Just curious.

[sn0wflake]

I need NetBIOS because tranferring files from my Windows XP PC to Knoppix is sent via the Internet, i.e. I upload a file to Knoppix instead of sending it via my 100 MB switch.

[garyng]

How do you do the transfer ?

If you have Samba on KNOPPIX, I don't see why you would go through internet as both should be talking SMB(Netbios) over TCPIP.

[sn0wflake]

I drag-n-drop files from Windows to a Knoppix share.

Why are my files sent via the Internet?

[garyng]

one possibility would be that both of your machines' default gateway points to the outside world and they are not on the same 'internal' subnet.

I need to know more about your hardware/network setup to have a more definitive answer. Are both machine behind some kind of router ? what does ifconfig on the knoppix box said and what does ipconfig/all on the window box said ? Or another easy test, just traceroute from one machine to another and see how the packet travels.

Based on what you described, you are already using SMB(over TCP/IP) but for some reason, the ip packets got routed to the outside world and back.

BTW, I doubt Samba(which is what works on the Knoppix share) support NWlink/Netbeui, not sure though. Samba AFAIK is a TCP/IP only solution. I do like NWlink/Netbeui for some situation as that is safer and easier for some small internet network, no firewall is needed.

[sn0wflake]

All PC's are connected to a switch with Internet connection in the uplink port, so all PC's are on the Internet. That may be the main problem.
The subnet mask of the PC's are different. The IP is given by my ISP.
Doing a traceroute to the Windows PC from Knoppix results in two hops. I know I only have one hop to the ISP switch when doing a traceroute in Windows to the gateway so there's definately something fishy about that.
Since you know something about IPX please explain me how I install it.

Sorry, I'm not that good at networking :(

Update: I phoned my ISP and got an explanation. My ISP provides IP's and gateways at random. The solution would be to buy a router since it handles network traffic internally. I can also plug in my switch and use the available ports for a larger network.

[garyng]

I checked again and as far as I know, Samba doesn't support ipx so it is of little use even you can load it. It is a standard linux kernel module.

what you can do is manually give both machines an internal ip say 192.168.1.x then traffic between them will not go out to your isp.

[sn0wflake]

I'm not happy with static IP's. I also prefer moving targets in FPS :)

[garyng]

you need a NAT router then. Linux support of ipx is minimal and netbeui is non-existant. If it is a Windows only network, I would just enable netbeui/nwlink which is safe and secure.

[sn0wflake]

What's so special about a NAT router compared to a switch?
Sorry, I'm crossposting this in the hardware forum as well :|

[garyng]

Using a switch, every PC in your network sees the outside world(isp) and they get the ip from there which can be on different subnet. As a result, when they communicate, they need to go through your isp's router, i.e. slow(adsl modem round trip).

Using a NAT router, PC in your network get an internal ip from the router and they cannot see the outside world(the router would do the dirty job). Then, all ip traffic behind the router would be full speed and only when you need, you go out to the outside world through the router.

BTW, when I said add static internal ip, it is in additional to the dynamic ip given by your isp and is still invisible to the outside world. But I am not sure ip Windows is smart enough to use it first. I know how to do it in Samba.

[sn0wflake]

How do I use static IP's in Knoppix by Samba?

[garyng]

in smb.conf

bind interfaces only = yes
interfaces = 192.168.1.1/24 127.0.0.1

[sn0wflake]

garyng: Binding didn't work. Maybe because I'm not sure what your smb.conf hack does. Why 192.168.1.1 and what is the number 24 for?

[garyng]

show me the ipconfig/all on Windows and ifconfig on knoppix. I need to know your current network setup to go further.

[sn0wflake]

The following is quikly translated from danish to english:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows IP-konfiguration

Hostname. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : winter
Primary DNS-suffiks. . . . . . . . . . . . . :
Nodetype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP-routing aktiveret . . . . . . . . . . . . : Nej
WINS-proxy aktiveret . . . . . . . . . . . . : Nej

Ethernet-netværkskort Internet:

Connectionspecific DNS-suffix. . . . . . : opasia.dk
Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B-TX)
Physical adresse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-20-5B-39-38-00
Dhcp aktiveret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Ja
Automatisk configuration activated . . . . . : No
IP-adresse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 80.164.38.47
Subnet mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Standardgateway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 80.164.38.1
DHCP-server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 80.166.137.5
DNS-servere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 193.162.153.164
194.239.134.83

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:B2:58:EA:58
inet addr:80.161.126.52 Bcast:80.161.126.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:43239 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:33773 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:5710261 (5.4 MiB) TX bytes:3478752 (3.3 MiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xe000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:116 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:116 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:8120 (7.9 KiB) TX bytes:8120 (7.9 KiB)

[Durand Hicks]

Snowflake,

Change your subnet mask to read: 255.0.0.0 on all of your machines and reboot to take effect on the windows machines. As for the linux machines, just do ifdown eth1 and then ifconfig eth1 subnet 255.0.0.0 <enter> and ifup eth1 and you're good to go. If you're not comfortable using the command line, then netcardconfig (GUI) alone should do it for you.

[sn0wflake]

My IP's are given by my ISP. I think the best solution is to buy a router. No weird configuration files, etc.

[garyng]

You need to give an 192.168.1.x address to each machine IN ADDITION to the existing one given by your ISP.

On linux,

ip addr add 192.168.1.10/24 dev eth1

On XP,

netsh interface ip add address "lan" 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0

you need to replace "lan" with your device name(which is in danish and I don't know what it is) on your machine. I usually rename in in the network folder to something more manageable like "lan" instead of that long and cumbersome name with space given by microsoft !


After addition these two address, you can try ping from one machine to another with the 192.168.1.x address and if you get it, they will not go out to the wild internet when trying to communicate and the samba configuration I have given should work.

[Durand Hicks]

I don't even know if it's possible to bind 2 ip addresses to one network card. Perhaps you meant if each computer has 2 NICs? Even better, one computer can be configured to as a temporary router/internet connection system. Just pop in a cheap nic in addition to the one already pulling an ip address from the ISP and assign a private address to the other nic. Better instructions can be found at www.practicallynetworked.com. The easiest, best overall solution is to buy a router and link your switch to the router's lan port. The linksys brand is fairly cheap, but highly reliable in use, IMO.

[garyng]

you can bind multiple IPs to one physical device, it is just a matter of making the driver answer ARP on more than one IP. A router is an easier solution, I just tried to give an alternative to existing setup. This is a free private network setup and there are scenarios that multiple IPs on single NIC can be useful, especially on linux where the firewall rules can be quite creative.

[sn0wflake]

Thank you all! :) I think I'll go with the router solution since I don't have to fiddle with configuration files.

[sn0wflake]

I finally figured out to disable the Windows XP firewall entirely and I now get a 2 MB upload speed from Knoppix to Windows XP which is more acceptable than 128 Kbps!

My next question is how to configure Windows XP's firewall to accept Samba so I don't have to disable/enable the firewall in every upload session. What TCP/UDP ports are needed? This will probably also help me configure the Firestarter firewall.

Update: OK, I actually figured it out in 2 minutes :oops: TCP is port 139 and UDP is port 137 but this presents me with a new problem. Now grc.com reports an open port in Windows XP. Grrrr... Time for a better firewall or a router.