[sclug] Strange networking problem

[Derek M Jones]

Bob,

>> I can telnet and ftp from it to other boxes.  However, attempting an 
>> mget, or get, from ftp results in a long delay and no files being 
>> transfered.
> 
> This sounds like it has firewall rules that do not handle the active FTP 
> portion of FTP working; perhaps the ip_conntrack_ftp module isn't 
> compiled.  Or perhaps it isn't tracking connections from itself?
...
> Have you tried checking 'passive' mode is on in FTP (I think it usually 
> is in FTP by default now, though)?

Switching to passive solved the problem.

>> Most interesting of all.  I installed a program, working under Suse 
>> 9.3 and get the message on the server:
>>
>> _X11TransSocketINETConnect: Can't connect: errno = 111 Epsilon: Cannot 
>> connect to C server: 127.0.0.1:0.0
> 
> That seems quite common these days (I thought it had been for a while); 
> usually local connections are made through the UNIX domain socket.  If 
> you want to allow stuff to connect via loopback, you probably have to do 
> 'xhost +localhost' (IIRC - long time since I used X).

Tried that (it appeared to be enabled by default).  No luck.

> A simple test to all these is to turn off the firewall on the box (I 
> think SuSE has a YAST option for this) and see if that makes a difference.

Tried that.  No joy.

Something I noticed after I sent the original email was that the hard
disc activity light was staying on.

Having spent the afternoon playing with Suse 10 on the server I
have decided that it doe snot offer anything I need and seems to offer
lots of problems (although the laptop is working just fine).

A search of the various forums does not through up anything relevant,
but then 10.0 is new (my package arrived direct from Novell yesterday).

So I have decided to go with Suse 9.3 for the time being.

Thanks for your help.

-- 
Derek M. Jones                              tel: +44 (0) 1252 520 667
Knowledge Software Ltd                      mailto:derek at knosof.co.uk
Applications Standards Conformance Testing    http://www.knosof.co.uk