Greetings,

It's been quite a few years (a bit more than 10) since last I used linux, and even then I wasn't any expert, just a normal user. Recently at work, we have decided to set up a linux server for the internet (intranet and internet are physically separated), since only a router wouldn't do. And since it's been a while since I last used linux, I decided to set up a 3 step plan towards that goal.
First, connect the linux pc to the internet. Second, set it as a monitor pc (between the router and the lan, with 2 NICs and allowing and monitoring all trafic), and lastly, set it as a server/firewall.
My problem arises at the first step. I installed SUSE 10, and all went well at first. I configured the NIC for a static ip (10.0.0.250), default gateway pointing to the router (10.0.0.1), and when using the router as dns didn't work, I put the ISP DNS's directly. It worked, and I used SUSE update, and all went well. I shut off the computer, and the next day it wouldn't connect to the internet no matter what I tried.
On ip route show, I get something which I feel may be causing the problem:

10.0.0.0/24 dev eth0 scope link src 10.0.0.250
169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link
127.0.0.0/8 dev lo scope link
default via 10.0.0.1 dev eth0

The 169.254.... line seems to not belong here.
I also have a weird line in /etc/hosts.deny:
http-rman: ALL EXCEPT LOCAL

I tried commenting it, but it didn't change anything, so I put it back on.
I can post any info you want, but please bear in mind that, since the linux pc can't connect to the net, I'm using another pc next to it, and I have to copy every info manually, so if we can avoid long info at first, it would be appreciated!

Anyway, I have a very good computer knowledge, but linux has evolved too much for me to grasp it headfirst (I'm still from the time when startx was a novelty!! )

Any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot!

Hmm.. did the same ip route show for comparison:
The first matches with the machines LAN ip, the second with the external ip of the other nic. The third is for loopback and the default line for the default router set.

When we compare it to yours, well, it seems a tad off. For starters, instead of the LAN ip it shows the broadcast address for the range. Also the second line doesnt have a src ip, tho I believe that was your intent, of not having a direct public ip? And the router line seems to be in order.

Whats the LAN ip you have set for it? Im getting a shiver that tells me that might be the key..
And one thing ive lkearned with SuSE networking is that most times the error is fixed by just re-entering the data with one of their fancy GUI tools.. Beats the light out of me why, but thats the way it seems to be with wireless cards suddenly loosing connectivity due to no obvious reason, nics forgetting their destiny and so on.. (:

One last thing, how do you know its not connected? Ping with hostname / ip tells you no route to host, or ping with ip just doesnt work or what? (just checking for the routine errors.. (: )

Oh yeah, the hosts.deny is for incoming traffic.. I dont know what this http-rman thing is, but id guess its some documentation system that is by default allowed to be accessed only localy. Which reminds me, sometimes a good sanity check for networking is:
If that fails, then something is realy off track.. (;

btw, welcome back to linux, and welcome to LQ.. Im sure youll find your stay here pleasant (:

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll try to answer them as you asked them.


Ok, the LAN is working on the 10.0.0.x range, and also in the 10.107.4.x range. The linux pc is to have a static ip address of 10.0.0.250. No computer in the LAN has an outside address. Only the router has one, and that one is given by the ISP on connection. I also used SUSE's GUI tools.


On mozilla, it can't resolve DNS, and says connection refused for ip. On terminal window, I can ping localhost, 10.0.0.250 (itself), but I can't ping anything else, including router (10.0.0.1).

I did try commenting that line, but since it didn't change my situation, I just let it be the way it was.
What really intrigues me is that it was working. I used the SUSE update, then I shut down the computer, and the next day it wasn't working. Maybe it was one of the update packages. But I only chose the default ones, so supposedly it should be ok.

I've been meaning to get back to linux for a while now (want to set a file/printer sharing server/firewall at home), I just lacked the time for it. This is a good opportunity, cause I can get back to linux, and do it in work hours!

And thanks for the welcome!

Well, I think I may have a possiuble solution for you. As far as my knowledge goes, the max ip address for any range is x.x.x.254 and 255 is used for broadcasts. I have no idea why it worked for the first time around as in my opinion it shouldn't (:

Tho my knowledge of networking isnt at such a prominent level, im pretty readu to vouch for this..

some random search result:

Oh, I know that... that's why I set the pc to 10.0.0.250.

I also tried pinging broadcast, and it doesn't answer either.

um.. can a machine bet set to use the broadcast as its ip? Ofcousre you might know this better than me, but IMO no machine should be set directly for it, but under the same network class and it can then also monitor the broadcast traffic. Im not sure one can just ping into broadcast as it would be caught by every machine on the same subnet, and than I think oughta be ruled out by the protocol implementation. (tho this is a pure guess)

But I didn't set the pc to the broadcast address. Broadcast is 10.0.0.255, and pc is using 10.0.0.250.

Ok, I found the problem. And I'm ashamed to tell that it wasn't actually the configurations, but rather the cable that was the problem! Thanks for the help, though.

heh.. Well, good to know it got sorted out (:

Oh, sorry about the broadcast, I must have confused 250 and 255 in my mind somehow.. Start seeing things when there seems to be now logical explenation.. (: