Networking newbie question here.

[xafwodahs]

Hi guys and girls, beeing the noobie I am, I can not solve this problem; hope somebody can suggest a solution.
In my office there is a LAN connected via router/modem to a server abroad.Local machines are running XP with Novell client for login.
I would like to set up a local server (gentoo if possible) to be accessed by local machines only.
I tried to connect a machine running gentoo to the local network but for now I did not even succesfully manage to ping other pcs. I checked network cable and ethernet card and they are both ok, so there must be something else.Can anybody help, at least to solve the ping problem.
Thanx in advance.Have a nice day

[xoomix]

We're gonna need network info from you - subnet info, ip addresing, and your Gentoo system's 'ifconfig' output + 'route -n' output.

[batistuta]

are you running dhcp? Make sure you have a valid ip address and that the mask is correct. Also make sure your router allows connection between the various machines. There is usually an option for that.
Another reason why the ping might not be answered is if the machine your are trying to ping has a firewall. Check if machines can ping with each other

[heavydwitstyle]

Also could you please specify if you are trying to ping these other computers by name or by IP address.

If you are trying to ping by name it could also be a name resolution problem.

[xafwodahs]

First of all thank you all for your replies.

For xoomix:

ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:FC:08:92:BC
inet addr:10.5.75.50 Bcast:10.5.75.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::250:fcff:fe08:92bc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:10466 (10.2 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x7000

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:740 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:740 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:44922 (43.8 Kb) TX bytes:44922 (43.8 Kb)

route -n

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
10.5.75.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 10.5.75.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

For batistuta:

We have static IP addresses withi the local network. WWith the XP machines we can ping any machine from anyother machine. Some of us have shared files on their machine which can be accessed from within the local network without any problem. I am sure the IP I use is a valid one simply because I unplugged my XP machine from the local network and used the TCP/IP settings for the Linux machine.

For heavydwitstyle:
I only tried pinging by IP address

[xoomix]

Can you ping your own gateway, being 10.5.75.1 ?

[xafwodahs]

No, I can't. I get a "Destination Host Unreachable" message.

[Rad]

Are you sure the gateway does not associate certain ips with their respective mac address and drops all other combinations?
Also, is there anything in dmesg / mii-tool that would indicate that the link negotiation between the NICs failed?

[batistuta]

Do you have a spare hub somewhere? You could try hooking two machines to a hub, and then the hub to the router rather than both machines to the router. In this case you would know if the problem is the router dropping packages or the host configuration. You could also try a crossover cable between two machines. Also, can you ping localhost?

[xafwodahs]

For rad (thank you for getting involved):

[xafwodahs]

For batistuta:

I tried the crossover cable connection; the XP machine can succesfully ping the Linux machine.
The ping command from Linux to Xp looks like this:
---------------------------------------------------
linux: ~# ping 10.5.75.11
PING 10.5.75.11 (10.5.75.11) 56(84) bytes of data
---------------------------------------------------

no further message is displayed

[batistuta]

If you can ping XP and linux machine each other using the crossover cable, that looks like a switch issue to me. I'm not sure if you've said this: but can other machines ping you (when connected via the switch)?

I'm starting to think the problem is your switch. The thing is that switches route based on MAC addresses, while routers route based on IP addresses. Your switch is routing via MAC address, which might be the reason why changing the IP address on an XP machine does not brake the layout, but recycling a working IP address on your linux box does brake it. It would be interesting to boot your linux box on XP (if you have a dual boot setup) and see if that works.

I don't have any experience configuring switches, but I suspect the problem is somewhere there.

[xafwodahs]

update.
I forgot that the XP machines are firewalled , that is why the ping command with crossed over cable would not work from linux to xp. Once the firewall is disabled the ping command works fine both ways.

Thank you for explaining the difference between routing via switch and via router (I did not know that); I will try and find out information concerning the configuration of the switch;

[xafwodahs]

I forgot one:

[batistuta]

[xafwodahs]

I checked both the installation guide and the maker's site (usr), but found nothing. Infact when we first bought the device we did not configure anything. Perhaps the problem is with the router...