I have a very strange problem with getting Linux machines to connect to our network. I am able to get any Windows machine networked just fine, but Linux machines with exactly the same settings won't work. The network has fixed IPs for all the machines in it.

The Linux machines seem to connect just fine but the router shows no connection. If I try to access anything (web-page or such), all I get is Looking up... The nameservers are correct.

I am able to ping the gateway/router, but everything seems to stop there. Needless to say, there is nothing about this in router logs.

Actually I was able to connect to the router once using DHCP, but that was only once. Now trying DHCP does make a connection (it shows up on router), but there is still no data transfer...

This happens with every linux machine I've tried. What on earth could be wrong???

--edit--

Here's some more information about the network and the setup:

The router is at 192.168.0.254 and there are two switches between the machine and the router. The router is Netgear WGR614 v7.

We have machines 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, 192.168.0.50, 162.168.0.51, 192.168.0.52 there also used to be 192.168.0.60 that is to be replaced with the new Linux server.

Here are the relevant settings from the new Linux box:

inet addr:192.168.0.60 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

I do not know the Bcast IP that the windows machines use, but that should be ok, right?

Route table has (destination, gateway, genmask, flags, metric, ref, use, iface):

localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
loopback * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default 192.168.0.254 0.0.0.0 UG 1 0 0 eth0

Arp says:
? (192.168.0.254) at 00:4F:49:00:EE:E8 [ether] on eth0

the firewall is not up (i.e. all with default policy ACCEPT)

DNS servers are the ones that our ISP provides. The machine cannot ping/access them.

-- Edit2 --

Fixed mistyped IP-addresses above...

OK,

Let IP of one machine 192.168.1.3 and Mask is 255.255.255.0
Let IP of another machine is 192.168.0.50 and Mask is 255.255.255.0

Just setup two m/c's with the above configuration. And then try to ping from each another.

Send me the ping results.
I got your problem.

These first issue I see is that your machines are in two different subnets, only machines with 192.16.0.X addresses would be able to talk to the router given the provided parameters.


Router / Gateway
192.168.0.254

network 192.168.1.0 /24
192.168.1.2,
192.168.1.3,
192.168.1.60

network 192.168.0.0 /24
192.168.0.50,
162.168.0.51,
192.168.0.52

New PC
inet addr:192.168.0.60
Bcast:192.168.0.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.254


At this point I would ask, do you have any security enabled in the Netgear Router ? this address should be able to get through the router provided all the information you have shown is correct. Services can be blocked in that router by IP range, has someone enabled filtering in the router ? Check the Router manual and settings. ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/wg...al_20apr06.pdf

Check the Router logs as well to see if it is showing access Deniaed when your Linux machines tries to access a web site.
and view the connected devices list in the router.

Well, actually no... That was just a typing mistake... They are really 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3 and 192.168.0.60... So they are in the same subnet. I fixed the addresses in original post also, sorry about that...

There are no rules blocking the traffic in the router, and the router's logs don't say anything at all. The connections from the Linux machines don't even show up under the "Attached Devices" in the router's ui (unlike connections from Windows machines with identical settings).

This is what Netgear support has to say about the problem:

So "Activate NetBIOS over TCP/IP", how am I supposed do that in Linux???

If you get an ip with ifconfig and the gateway is setup properly, then have you restarted the network interfaces (eth0 or eth1) ?

Thanks.
--Willie

Yes, of course I have.

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/....html#id367198

That would be a function in Samba.. broadcast based peer name resolution

I would think your Machines would still show up in the client list just with IP or MAC addresses instead of with machine names.. but I guess that isn't happening and I'm not familiar enough with their routers to tell you any different.