Hi! I am a complete Linux newbie attempting to install Linux on several old machines, and so create a render farm. These machines don't have CD-drives and so, with the help of a long-time Debian user, I've attempted to do what he called a 'network install' of Woody, although we're actually getting the files off the Internet after installing a couple of floppies' worth of data.

The problem comes when we try to get onto the Internet, which involves getting through the XP machine, via a switch. We know the IP of the XP box (192.168.0.1), and when we try to access the Internet through it the switch shows the Linux and XP boxes talking to each other (but not to my Win98 laptop, also connected to the switch). However, the Linux machine can't seem to find the Internet through the XP machine.

Sooo...what we'd like to know is how to set up the XP machine (which is where we presume the problem is) to give the Linux box access to the Internet for the installation.


Thanks,
Jenesis

you are not running any firewalls on the XP machine are you? i had a same problem before. my firewall on the windows machine was blocking the internet access to the linux machine. anyway why dont you connect the internet directly to the linux box and try the network install (just a thought)

No, no firewalls. The reason I haven't just plugged the Linux box in is because, having failed to get through the XP machine, my friend (the Debian user) thought that possibly we'd need to get XP to do IP masquerading rather than these Microsoft VPNs it seems so fond of - so we'd have to fix that at some point if we wanted to set the network back to the XP machine being the Internet machine on the network, so we thought we might as well do it before installing. (In any case, the Internet connection is actually a connection to the college network, to get connected to which I had to supply my MAC address, so I don't know if the Linux box would be able to go straight in.)

It did occur to me today that I noticed that I tried, the day after I tried this, to access the Internet on my laptop (which also goes through the XP machine), but for some reason it had stopped working. After a bit of searching I realised that XP had, for no apparent reason, set up the Internet connection as a new connection. Nothing on the network had physically changed, but XP was showing a 'new' connection, with the wrong IP address (although the XP machine could still get onto the 'Net, which is why I didn't notice straight away). This new 'connection' didn't have ICS turned on, so I set that, and the IP address, and the laptop could then access the Internet again. This may have been what stopped the Linux box getting onto the 'Net, rather than the VPN/IP masquerading issue, but I haven't had another go.

Is this VPN business actually an issue, or were we barking up the wrong tree?