I am trying to setup a network with 2 laptops. Of course I got no hub nor wires, so I went ahead and bought myself a crossover cable. I am having trouble setting it all up. I thought it was like setting up a regular network.

Comp A (Windows 2000)
ip: 169.254.66.58
subnet: 255.255.0.0
DHCP enabled: Yes
Ipx/spx enabled
This is using the autoconfig feature

Comp B (Linux Redhat 9)
ip: 169.254.66.57
subnet: 255.255.0.0
No idea is DHCP, ipx/spx is installed.
Also this was setup manually.

I know for a fact that both network cards are working just fine. And I know the cable is good. I have been working on this for over 2 hours with no idea what could be wrong. Any ideas?

Hi eggoz,

Try doing a manual configuration on both boxes, but using the address class 192.168.1.0.

ie

Box A

IP: 192.168.1.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

Box B

IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

That 169.254 class is what windows assigns if it cant find a DHCP server.

socom

And you don't need IPX/SPX for file sharing with Linux. Windows runs NBT over IP, so SMB/CIFS will work just fine.

Craziest thing. All of a sudden it just started working. Then in the middle of transferring files, it stopped working. Won't even let me ping it. Odd I tell you.

Things to try

Check that both network cards are up.
On linux ifconfig
Check the log file on linux /var/log/messages
Ping 127.0.0.1 on both machines.
Ping local IP address.