Hello,

I live in an appartment with an internet network provided by the appartment owners. I have been using Linux for a little while so know how to do the basics and I'm currently using Sabayon Linux 3.3 just for a change to my usual Ubuntu. The network was working a little while ago, I think it was using an IP of 10.0.0.21 not sure what the network mask was. The other day however I turned the laptop on and the internet refused to work. The ip address was 10.0.1.177 and netmask 255.255.255.0 which seemed ok to me.

I tried my work laptop which is running XP and it work instantly. The ip was 10.0.1.34 and had a network mask of 255.255.253.0. Now as far as I'm aware this is an illegal nestmask?

After searching for ages I found this post which also uses this netmask, whether in error or not I don't know, URL to follow because it won't let me post URLs on my first post

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windo...er-config.html

The main point is windows accepts this netmask while I don't seem to be able to get ifconfig to use it. Unfortuantly this stops me from being able to access the internet on my linux laptop which means my Girlfriend can't use it while I'm at work as well.

Any Ideas?

Thanks Ian

I believe you are right. Just for fun, I googled the number 255.255.253.0 and got only 36 hits. I believe all 36 are in error. By comparison, googling valid masks 255.255.254.0 and 255.255.252.0 each returned over 46,000 hits.

I suspect that if you set your Linux net mask to 255.255.254.0, normal traffic will work, though broadcasts may not.

I recommend you find out who the network administrator is for your apartment network, point out the error (apparently in the DHCP server) and ask him or her to fix it. That may also fix other problems.

Ok thanks, I mainly just like the way that Windows accepts it no questions asked. I will try to find the admin and explain to him though may be difficult any one know what network mask is in Chinese :P