Okay... I'm a fairly seasoned Linux type, and I've trouble-shot some tuffies, but I'm stumped on this one.

We've got a Domino server running on Linux (SuSE 9.0) which has NO internet access and that's how we like it. It can be pinged by every machine in the network.

We also have 5 Win2K boxes running Notes; none of which cannot be pinged (although, at one point they were pingable, or I never would've gotten them on the Notes network in the first place. No host file settings have been changed, none have internet access, etc.

We also have 2 Linux servers, one mail (OpenBSD running qmail), the other will be (as soon as I can figure out what is happening here) a 2nd Domino Server (using Simply Mepis 2004.4), both of which have access to the internet and the internal network via a A/B ethernet switch. Both can talk to the internet fine, both can ping the main intranet Domino server. I can even ssh into the main server with either server using either the host name, or the the ip address. The Mail server can be pinged by all the machines in the network, and the 2nd Domino one can not.

I have combed all the documentation on resolv.conf, hosts, ifconfig, and these forums and can't find any reason why the Windows Machines nor the Mepis machine cannot be pinged but can ping the primary server and mail server, and why the primary server and mail server can ping each other, but not anyone else, meanwhile Lotus Notes sits happily on top having no trouble traversing the network. WTF?

I have static ips on all machines, the router (Linksys) has a firewall, but again, my internet connection is fine. DHCP is not set, the NICs on my internet capable servers have aliased ips and have no trouble switching back and forth between networks, all the windows machines can browse the Samba Server and associated shares, but not each other.

Any ideas?

Because of the # of machines involved, I've refrained from posting all the various hosts files and interfaces screen captures. But if there are any files that you would need to see, I'll post them stat.

Thanks in advance

Sam

Are you pinging with IP numbers or pc names?
What is in the /etc/hosts file on the Linux box that can't ping the windows pcs?
If it is by pc names, try setting the /etc/hosts file. For example, mine server looks like this:

192.168.1.1 SERVERPC.dygnet SERVERPC
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.10 DYGPC.dygnet DYGPC # Main Workstation
192.168.1.11 HKGPC.dygnet HKGPC # Harriet's PC
192.168.1.12 TVPC.dygnet TVPC #Television PC

How many routers do you have, and are all the boxes hooked up to the same one?

If it helps any - I had a similar problem and it ended up being a bad NIC.

Both really. Either way yields the same results

I've got the hosts files on all the machines, including the Windows machines set exactly the same using the format specified above. It's probably one of those stupid little details that I've just forgotten was important, or something that SuSE's YaST configurator and OpenBSD configure properly from the get-go which I am unaware of.

One minor detail that I'm not sure is important, but is the only variance I see above from what I've got set up is that your machine.domain listings don't have a .suffix at the end (i.e.; .com, .net, .etc). Might that make a difference? My working servers have their hosts files with the suffixes in place and they can be pinged just fine, so I dunno. Just a thought.

If I could ping the ips and not the hostnames, then it would obviously be a DNS issue, but where I can ping a machine, either way works.

If my Windows machines couldn't ping the server but could ping each other, than I'd suspect the server's config to be screwy somewhere, but the situation is the opposite. ALL machines can ping the primary and mail servers. The windows machines CAN'T ping EACH OTHER, nor can they be pinged by any of the servers. Only the primary and mail servers are ping-able. What's even more weird, is now my new server ProMepis (debian-based) server behaves like the windows machines and not like the OpenBSD and SuSE machine.

Perhaps a place to start is what services allow a windows machine to receive pings? Or more pointedly, are their services or settings in either OS that can PREVENT pings from being received.

Thanks for your answers. Any further ideas would be greatly appreciated.

OK

With the Windows machines:

Have they got any VPN software installed? Most VPN client software has a firewall component with a default drop rule (I found out to my ongoing frustration)


With the Linux Server:

I know it's obvious and you have probably checked it at least three times but...

Are you sure that they have the same sub-net mask?

Class B to Class C might see the target machine
Class C to Class B will cause many a sleepless night.