I had been trying without luck over the past one week to set up a Home network with Linux as the File/Printer Server and Windows XP as client. Later on I intend to share a an internet connection between the two... but first I need to set up the Network to get going..
All through the initial stages the postings on this forum have been an immense help to configure the Network in Linux.

BUT unfortunately neither Win XP nor Linux can see each other or ping each...

Here is my configuration for the Network Im desperately trying to setup

Network Medium
CAT 5 Crossover Cable( working fine in other network)

Linux PC
OS : Redhat Linux 6.2
IP Address : 192.168.1.4
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
Gateway : None
DNS : None


Sample output from ipconfig eth0 command
Link Encap: Ethernet HWaddr
inetaddr:192.168.1.4 Bcast: 192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:88 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:155 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
collisions:0 txquelen:100
Interuppt:11 Base address:0x6000

Sample output from route -n command

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use iface
192.168.1.4 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 eth0
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 l0

The hosts file contains entries for both Win XP and Linux machine names and ip addr
DNS has not been configured in the Linux machine.


Windows PC
OS: Windows XP
Network Connections LAN settings

IP addr : 192.168.1.2
Subnet mask : 255.255.255.0
Gateway: None

DNS: None
NetBiOS over TCP/IP has been enabled.

I have Zone Alarm firewall installed and the Local Network has been set to
a Trusted Zone.
I have not installed firewalls in Linux, but I dont know whether some default setting is dropping my PING request packets.There are no entries in the hosts.allow or hosts.deny file.

I have tried shutting down the ZoneAlarm firewall and placing ALL:ALL in hosts.allow but without luck.

Both the Lan Cards have the link lights on after connecting the cable. Also ping with localhost or hostname or IP address of respective PC is working fine.

I need to setup this network very soon. Im new to the Linux world and would like to explore it.

Any help is very much welcome.....


Thanks in advance...

Have u tried to configure samba server.

For making a network of windows and linux client u need to configure samba server.

Read the online tutoriial at oreilly for samba, and for more info google for the docs on samba.


-jack

I didnt expect a reply so fast.... Thanks for patiently going through the posting...

I guess to setup samba I need to get both the machines ping each other using ip addresses and machine names.

Pls guide me through this... i really appreciate the help...

correct.
what I would try first is.
On the windows box kill the firewall.
On the linux box run ' iptables -L ' to make sure there are no rules.
I'm guessing you are not using a hub or switch?
make sure it is a crossover cable. If it was plugged into a hub it probably isn't.

That's all I can think of now. Let me know how that goes

I tried turning off the Zone Alarm firewall.

The cable is indeed a crossover type cable since I could connect 2 Windows PCs with it and transfer files.

STILL NO LUCK....

I dont have a clue whats causing the problem...

one question, do I need to setup a DNS server and gateway on the Linux machine for the connection to work..

Please help me out....

Forgot to mention

iptables -L returns command not found

I guess the firewall hasnt been installed on Linux