Need help setting up internet connection over Windows Network.

DAKPluto · 09-23-2007, 07:09 PM

Last experience with Mandriva did this for me, but Debian isn't, so I need some help.

Here is the scenerio:

DSL Modem -> Wireless Router -> Windows Machine (Vista) -> Network Hub -> Linux Machine (Debian)

(the Linux box has no Wireless connection, so it has to share the internet connection with the Windows box)

The windows machine has the Wireless and Cable connections bridged. The Network settings in Debian is showing the proper Network connection (eth2, built in networking on the motherboard.)

General Tab has:

Hostname: debain
Domain name: (blank)

DNS Tab has the proper DNS Servers as showing by ipconfig on the Windows Box.

Hosts tab has a lot of stuff:

Code:

ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
127.0.0.1 localhost debian
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
127.0.1.1 debian.mshome debian
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

The properties for eth2:

Code:

Enable this connection is checked

Configuration: DHCP
IP/Subnet/Gateway are all blank

everything I try to load keeps timinig out on me. So what's wrong?

JimBass · 09-23-2007, 11:12 PM

Try a few command line tools. First off, try:

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig eth2

That should give you the address info for your card. It should look something like this (I used eth1 for my connection):

Code:

jim@jimsworktop:~$ /sbin/ifconfig eth1
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:12:F0:E8:BD:4D
          inet addr:192.168.68.106  Bcast:192.168.68.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::212:f0ff:fee8:bd4d/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:12669 errors:0 dropped:522 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:5126 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:273724629 (261.0 MiB)  TX bytes:108331558 (103.3 MiB)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x4000 Memory:c0214000-c0214fff

Also, I think your network connection map is wrong, or if it is correct, that would be your problem. The wireless router should be plugged into the network hub, and then all the computers should be plugged into the hub. That allows the DHCP from the router to be passed to every wired computer. If you did for some reason have the wireless router plugged only into the Vista machine, then plugged that computer into the hub, the DHCP requests from the linux computer would never reach the router, so it wouldn't get an address.

If you have an address on the linux box, you should be able to ping the wireless router. It probably is something like 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.0.1. You also should be able to ping the Vista machine, although the firewall settings on that machine may prevent that from working.

The hosts file is of no importance. Reaching the DNS servers is very important though. If you have an address found by the /ebin/ifconfig eth2 command, then try this one:

Code:

dig google.com

That should come back with the IP address of the google webservers.

If you don't have an address, issuing this command as root and check for problems:

Code:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

Peace,
JimBass

DAKPluto · 09-24-2007, 04:06 PM

the network map is correct.

The DSL Modem goes into the Wireless router. The Wireless router than has 3 computers connected on that wireless network. One of those is this Vista box. Because the Linux box does not have a Wireless card, I setup the network hub between the vista box and the linux box. (they are on the same desk, and there is no way to route a cable to the Wireless Router)

The basic idea is for the linux box just to piggy back the internet connection on the Windows Box. This worked with Mandriva out of the box, but I really wanted to try debain.

JimBass · 09-24-2007, 05:02 PM

Ok, then go through the requests I made for code. We need to see if your Debian box is requesting an address from from the wireless router, and if it is getting an address from the router. For that to happen, your Vista box would have to be forwarding requests from one NIC to the other, which is not default behavior, you would have had to configure it as a router to make that happen. That isn't impossible, just not very likely.

Peace,
JimBass

DAKPluto · 09-24-2007, 06:02 PM

In other words my life would be 500x simplier just saying screw the whole Vista/network thing and breaking down and putting the linux on wireless also?

JimBass · 09-24-2007, 06:09 PM

If you have a wireless card that behaves well under linux, yes. Many people have problems with wireless, as most of it is run on proprietary windows drivers.

We're talking theory though. What you should do is see if you are getting an address on the linux box. You said you did under Mandriva? This isn't a distro issue at all. One distro can't tunnel a DHCP request through a windows box any easier than any other can. That is controlled by the windows box. If the Mandriva request got through, then the Debian one should also. So please give the info I asked for in my original post.

Also, using a windows machine as a router and buying a wireless only router with no slots for ethernet cables seems like a very bad idea.

Peace,
JimBass

DAKPluto · 09-24-2007, 06:24 PM

Code:

eth2     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr F8:59:f0:00E7:39
inet addr:192.168.1.103 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::fa59:f0ff:fe00:e739/64 Scope: Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500 Metric: 1
RX packets:5014 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3483 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:653689 (638.3 KiB)  TX bytes:486910 (475.4 KiB)
Interrupt:177 Base address:0xc0000

One bit of confusion, the windows box is only acting as a router to the Linux box. All the other computers (including this window box) are being routed thru the wireless router. The network hub is just the old hub I had before we went wireless.

JimBass · 09-24-2007, 06:29 PM

OK, that look like you have valid address, which is 192.168.1.103. Can you ping the gateway, which is probably 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254? If you can ping that, then try the dig command from my first post too, so we can see if you have name resolution.

Peace,
JimBass

DAKPluto · 09-24-2007, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimBass

OK, that look like you have valid address, which is 192.168.1.103. Can you ping the gateway, which is probably 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254? If you can ping that, then try the dig command from my first post too, so we can see if you have name resolution.

Peace,
JimBass

The 192.168.1.1 does nothing at all, just stay locked.

The 192.168.1.103 keeps giving me

Code:

 From 192.168.1.103 icmp_seq=xx(goes up) Destination Host Unreachable

dig does nothing either, just gives me connection timed out; no servers could be reached.

JimBass · 09-24-2007, 07:32 PM

OK, then something is allowing your DHCP request to go in and out, but not the pings. Try disabling the firewall on the windows computer, and check what IP address(es) it has. With the firewall off, try and ping the wired address on the windows computer. It that works, then try the gateway address again.

Peace,
JimBass

Dutch Master · 09-24-2007, 07:54 PM

Dunno 'bout the topography of your network (i.e. the physical location of each component) but you'd really make your life a whole lot easier if you'd invest a few bucks for a (longer) wire from the hub to the router, bypassing that Win-OS machine. Provided of course that the router has an ethernet plug available to start with

If that isn't an option, Jim has the way to go. Btw, there's another way of checking if the Debian box has recieved an address and that's looking it up on the router via it's webinterface. That should also reveal the gateway-IP of the router itself.