[Sussex] Re: Setting up a simple home network

[Steve Dobson]

Alan, or do you prefer "Captian"?

On Sat, 2005-04-30 at 10:45 +0100, Alan Delaney wrote:
> Whoops, should have proof-read my posting BEFORE I sent it. 
>   My /etc/hosts file actually says:
> 
> 
> 127.0.0.1           localhost
> 
> 192.168.0.1    shrineofthebeard.homenet shrineofthebeard
> 192.168.0.2    templeofthebeard.homenet templeofthebeard

My if "ifconfig" is just returning the loop back interface
then you still haven't configured the NIC (Network card).

All computers need a loopback network (lo on Linux) that is
always configured to have the address "127.0.0.1".  This is
used to allow the computer to network to itself.

In order for a computer to talk to another it needs an
network address on a physical network.  You say you have the 
correct cables now, so I have to assume that you have a NIC.
If you type "ifconfig -a" (as root) you should see something
like this:

# ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:46:26:26:D4
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

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:268 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:268 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:64577 (63.0 KiB)  TX bytes:64577 (63.0 KiB)

Note that "eth0" (the NIC) interface has not IP address and is
_not_ marked as "UP".  No network data can tracel on it yet.

If you don't see a "eth0" then your kernel is not seeing the
NIC.  Post as to which NIC (make and model) and I'll try and 
find the driver for it.

If you are seeing "eth0" the do this on shrineofthebeard:

# ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.1 \
        netmask 255.255.0.0 \
        broadcast 192.168.255.255

and this on templeofthebeard:

# ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 \
        netmask 255.255.0.0 \
        broadcast 192.168.255.255

"ifconfig" should now report on "eth0" as well as "lo".

You can then test that the two machines can see each other
using a broadcast ping:

# ping 192.168.255.255

and you should see replies (pongs) from both 192.168.0.1 & 
192.168.0.2.

Steve