I have 2 desktops with Windows XP on a home network configured with the network setup wizard and DHCP. I want to join the network with DHCP.
I have a laptop with SuSE 9.2 PRO and cannot get the HDCP Wizard to accept my settings. I have configured all 3 pc's with static addresses and got them working the first time. I need to have a lan network configured with DHCP, because I need to plug in to various networks. Can someone give me an example of all the IP adresses and any special variables and paramaters I need to set for DHCP server on SuSE 9.2 please. Here are my windows configuration:

Desktop 1
physical address - card
IP - 169.254.70.164
Subnet mask - 255.255.0.0

Desktop 2
physical address - card
IP - 169.254.37.19
Subnet mask - 255.255.0.0

Those 169.254.x.x IPs are not valid. They have those because they did not get a IP from a DHCP server. Also your post does not seem very clear to me after reading over it a few times. Are you trying to setup a DHCP server, or just get all 3 computers online via DHCP? If there is a DHCP server in the network now what is it? What are the computers connected to(hub, switch, router)?

I second that. Further, you don't use static IP's for a DHCP setup.

You need a DHCP server in order to use DHCP. Most home routers have a DHCP server built in. Linux can act as a DHCP server, but I would only do that if you left it connected to your network (which you say you aren't). Besides which, you would need to know what you were doing to do it that way (the last time I glanced at it, it intimidated me. I need to find an intro how-to).

169.254.70.164 and 169.254.37.19 are not common IP addresses. I know that windows XP does something like that if it cannot find a DHCP server. Normal home IP addresses start with 192.168.0, though some start with 172.16 and others start with 10. Just make sure that each address is unique, but starts the same. Look to the netmask. If the netmask is 255, then the numbers must be the same on all systems. The other numbers must form a unique combination. (This is a little over simplified, but it should hold true as long as you don't change the netmask from the numbers that windows recommends.) Oh, and don't end it with a zero.


I would recommend either getting a home router to act as a dhcp server, or just change your laptop back and forth, to and from DHCP. Yeah, it's a bit of a pain, but with YaST it is not really that hard.

Hi
I,m sorry I was not very clear. I have two WIN XP desktops on a network using a hub with 8 network points. I configured them using the network setup wizard and which "Obtain IP address automaticly" and using a workgroup of "MSHOME".This network works perfectly. When I installed Suse 9.2 on my laptop, yast configured my network card using DHCP. I was under the impression that if I then plugged into this home network, set Samba up to the "MSHOME" workgroup, that I would automaticly be logged on to the network. I used to get the error message "cannot find any workgroups in your network, internal error", if I clicked on the "Windows Network" icon. When I was still using XP on my laptop, I could plug into different networks and ran the network setup wizard and the get logged on automaticly by using the appropiate workgroup name. I then configured my home network "staticly" and all 3 computers was on first time and the shares work perfectly the way I wanted it to, although I have not sorted the network printer out yet which is attached to a windows machine.
So, I am totally confused as how to join "Windows and linux" dynamicly. I don't know if I am on the wrong track, but I was under the impression that if I plug into a dynamicly configured network, and the linux box is configured correctly, that you choose the workgroup name of the network, and that you then join automaticly and the shares are handeled by Samba. I thought Windows uses a DHCP server when using the network setup wizard. I tried very hard getting it right by extensive use of the documentation, but what is confusing is that the windows IP adresses and subnet mask is not right according to the documentation. Can someone perhaps help me on the right track with a simple example if possible? I hope this is more clear now.
I like SuSE so much I dumped windows off my laptop completely and will do so with my desktops when I am more familiar with Linux. Well done SuSE.

They are set to obtain an address automatically, but they aren't. There must be a DHCP server present for them to listen to.

OK. I never thought of it that way, but I can see why it would. Windows XP defaults to the 169.254.0.0 network when it cannot find a DHCP server. It grabs a random address within that network address space. Your computers are able to talk to one another because they are on the same subnet.

I have always found it odd that MS has done this. 169.254.0.0 is not a standard subnet. 192.168.0.0 and 172.16.0.0 are most common.

Understandable. Just bear in mind that your Windows machines are set to use DHCP. Even though they are set this way, they are not using DHCP. They have tried to find a DHCP server and have given up. They're now doing their own type of automatic.

And yes, you will need to use samba if you wish to speak with a windows machine on the SMB protocol (The "language", if you will, that windows machines use to communicate by default.)

I'm still not sure here what you mean by "statically". To set something up statically would be to manually set all the IP addresses, netmask, routes, and dns settings. Setting the "workgroup" is very much a Windows concept. Once the computers can communicate using IP addresses, then they can choose a protocol to get things done with. The SMB protocol is used by Microsoft within SMB. The "workgroup" really has nothing to do with the actual networking. It has everything to do with the specific "language" that the computers happen to be speaking. You could network instead with a different protocol and avoid workgroup names altogether! (not that I would when you have a Windows machine on the network, but you could).

Again, this is the case if, and only if, you have a DHCP server on the local network.


Hmmm? A DHCP server is a computer specifically set up to handle DHCP requests. Most computers do not have DHCP servers in them. I believe you could load a DHCP server in Windows XP (Professional perhaps), but this is not done for you.

Much better, Yes. You have a few options. The easiest "free" method would be to set up the IP addresses statically. For a simple example, assign one computer to 192.168.0.101 . Call the next one 192.168.0.102, and so on. If this network has no access to the internet, then you can ignore the gateway (the gateway is the computer that handles the internet connection) and the dns servers (dns is what translates the www.yahoo.com that you can understand to the 66.94.230.37 that your computer can actually use). If all you care about is file sharing (and no internet), then you only need to worry about IP addresses and netmask. Then you go over to Samba to worry about things like workgroups and shares.

An easier, but slightly more expensive option is to buy a DHCP server. Most home routers have a DHCP server built in. Just replace your hub with a router and then worry about samba.

There are varying ways to handle samba. I would recommend seting it up from YaST. There are two parts to samba. the client deals with your computer contacting others, and the server part is for other computers contacting yours. No other distro has YaST, so the most common instructions you will find will be for SWAT (The few times I have touched swat have been easy enough).

Here! Here!