Trying to get router and Fedora Core to co-exist.

completenewbie · 07-30-2005, 07:53 AM

First of all I am primarily using FC4 as my preferred distro, but I have tried Ubuntu and Knoppix too, none have worked. So on to the problem:

I am currently using BT Yahoo! Broadband (1MB) and am using a 2wire 1800HG HomePortal/OfficePortal router which is connected to my computer over ethernet on eth0. My network adapter is an 'ULi PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter'. I am also currently using FC4.

Both my network adapter and router are detected fine in FC4, the problem comes when FC4 tries to get my IP, DNS numbers and information via DHCP.. it just times out so the connection cannot activated. Since this has happened I have manually entered the IP numbers that the router has assigned my computer, the subnet mask and the default gateway aswell as the primary and secondart DNS servers my computer is running. I try to activate the connection and success, it activates.. but still, I can't access the internet over Konqueror or Firefox or IRC or gAIM or anything I try.

I recently read that the 2wire router can be accessed using its IP address aswell as managed and setup, but whenever I try this I get the connection refused which indicates that the router indeed is online, detected and activated so it's probably my routers firewall stopping any access from FC4, I don't understand why it should though since I've already entered in my computers DHCP assigned IP address, gateway and subnet.

What I want to know is exactly what information I need to get this router working and internet enabled on FC4. I don't want to disable my firewall yet because I don't want to take any needless risks, so short of going postal on my current router and buying something from Netgear or D-Link, can anyone please, please get me out of this giant mess?

P.S. Connection type is PPPoA, not PPPoE.

Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks.

completenewbie · 07-30-2005, 07:58 AM

Some networking details from Windows:

Internet Connection Details:
Connection Type: PPPoA
Username: 1800HG.user@btbroadband.com
Password: XXXXXXXX
Internet Address: 86.134.0.109
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway: 217.47.106.186
Primary Domain Name Server: 194.72.9.38
Secondary Domain Name Server: 194.74.65.68

Private Network:
Router Address: 192.168.1.254
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
DHCP Range: 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253
Allocated: 3
Available: 187
DHCP allocated IP to Computer #1: 192.168.1.64 (Ethernet)
DHCP allocated IP to Computer #2: 192.168.1.65 (Wireless)
DHCP allocated IP to Computer #3: 192.168.1.66 (Wireless)

Hopefully this will help you diagnose the problem.

maroonbaboon · 07-30-2005, 09:35 AM

So what default gateway did you set? It should be the router address 192.168.1.254.

Try posting output of 'route' command if still no external connection.

Not sure why dhcp does not work.

aqoliveira · 07-30-2005, 10:11 AM

Howzit

The easiest way would be for u to disable your FW if u where behinf another FW but this is not the case The problem u having is that the FW locally is blocking income request from the router therefore u are not able to recieve IP and DNS GAteway settings from the router.

U then tried to place this manually but once agin the problem is that the FW is blocking all out going connections therefore u back to sqaure one.

Run this command redhat-config-security and allow for DHCP service to access your network and vice versa. This will alow u to recieve IP/DNS/Gateway information

Cheers

completenewbie · 07-30-2005, 08:05 PM

maroonbaboon:
I set my default gateway to 192.168.1.254 (My router address), this is what I got when I used 'route':

Code:

Kernel IP routing table:
DEST             GATEWAY    GENMASK          FLAGS        METRIC       REF      USE     IFACE
192.168.1.0        *        255.255.255.0      U            0           0        0       eth0
169.254.0.0        *        255.255.0.0        U            0           0        0       eth0
default      192.168.1.254    0.0.0.0          UG           0           0        0       eth0

aqoliveira:
I tried using 'redhat-config-security' but just got a return message that the command isn't recognised.

maroonbaboon · 07-30-2005, 09:24 PM

You can see your firewall rules with command 'iptables -L'. I don't think most people would bother with a firewall inside a home network. The router should be blocking everything. I never heard of that sort of router tho'.

After you get the network up can you ping the router (ping 192.168.1.254)? You can check status and configure most routers by just pointing your browser at the router's IP address. Does that work?

You can also watch what is travelling across the network interface with command 'tcpdump -i eth0'. There are lots of options to tcpdump also to let you see things it detail. It often gives some clues to puzzling problems.

completenewbie · 07-31-2005, 12:24 AM

maroonbaboon:
I have flushed my firewall rules using 'iptables -F'

Perhaps to be more clear I should tell you what I have entered in for IP address, subnet mask and default gateway under 'system-network-config':
IP Address: 192.168.1.64 (This computers DHCP allocated address)
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.254 (My routers address)

Now I can only ping my IP Address (192.168.1.64). When I try to ping my router I get a return message of 'Destination Host Unreachable'.

I have tried using 'tcpdump -i eth0' and all activity seems to be 'BROADCAST' from 192.168.1.64, 192.168.1.65, 192.168.1.66 to 192.168.1.254

I have also tried to access and configure my router before using 192.168.1.254 or gateway.2wire.net which is just forwards to my routers IP address anyway and the connection is always refused suggesting that my router is up and running but my routers firewall is blocking me.

maroonbaboon · 07-31-2005, 03:39 AM

The router's firewall faces the external network connection. To have a firewall generally blocking internal clients defeats the whole purpose of a router.

If the exact same hardware setup works with Windows, but with none of several linux distributions, I suppose I would have to be suspicious of the NIC driver on your PC. Have you googled the driver name looking for problems? Or can you test it with something other than the router?

It is also strange if tcpdump shows the PC broadcasting on several different addresses. I'm really baffled. Have you turned off DHCP so that no request goes out? Having the DHCP client running in the background while you assign static IP numbers does not seem like a good idea. I'm guess FC4 has a nice GUI interface for setting all these things.