Problems networking Linux and Windows. Pinging does not work.
 

I'm try to get Red Hat Linux 9 machine networked with a Windows 98 machine so that I can share files and share my dail-up connection with the Windows box.
I'm unable to ping the Linux box from the Windows box, and pinging the Windows one from the Linux one does not work either.
I get a " Destination Host Unreachable" error.
How can I fix this?
I know that everything is connected right because when I boot the Linux machine into Windows, pinging the other Windows machine works. (I'm dual-booting).
The ips go like this:
Linux: 192.168.1.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Windows: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

Here are the results of ifconfig:

[root@localhost root]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:6E:B3:A0:C0
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:548 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:5 Base address:0x1400

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:137510 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:137510 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:9641847 (9.1 Mb) TX bytes:9641847 (9.1 Mb)

Does "TX packets:0 errors:548 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0" mean something?
Here are the results of route:
(dashed added to preserve spacing
[root@localhost root]# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination-----Gateway----Genmask---------Flags--Metric-Ref---Use---- Iface
1.1.21.2------------*----------255.255.255.255 ---UH-----0------0------0------ ppp0
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
127.0.0.0----------*----------255.0.0.0--------------U-------0------0------0------ lo
default-------------1.1.21.2--0.0.0.0---------------UG------0------0------0------ ppp0




I've been working on this for the past couple of days. I have tried many things that I have seen on other posts in this forum.

Thanks for helping me,

Elijah

Are you going though a hub or switch to connect the two computers, or are just connecting the computers together with a single ethernet cable?

If you are using a single cable it has to be a cross-over cable.

Sorry, I forgot to mention. I'm going through an ethernet hub to connect the computers together. I know that everthing is cabled right becuase when I boot the Linux machine into Windows the LAN works.

I wonder why pinging does not work from the Linux machine. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help so far,
Elijah

I know this sounds silly, but this seems like a firewall in the way. Are you running a software firewall on either machine?

I have the security level set to: No Firewall on the linux machine. There is not firewall on the Windows machine.

Try pinging the Windows machine with itself. ping 127.0.0.1 It should yeild results. BTW, are you pinging IPs or hostnames?

That works fine. It says recieved data etc..
The Linux machine can ping itself also.
I'm pinging IPs.
The linux machine's ip is: 192.168.1.1
The Windows machine's ip is: 192.168.1.2

Thanks again for you help,
Elijah

Should have asked before. Can either or both machines reach the internet? What machine is connected to the phone line? How are you sharing your connection? ICS? NAT? Proxy program? I'll try to stop the questions and aim an answer on ya after this, I promise. :D (I did say 'try'
)

I'm kinda guessing here. :(
When you are booted up to Windows, is that machine set to do Internet Connection Sharing?
If so, the second box gets it's ip address from the first one. right?
Now if you boot to Linux with box one, the other windows box has no instructions on how to get an address from the Linux machine.

To prove that, at Windows box two, type winipcfg while the first box is booted up to Linux.
You may get something like 169...... That means the Windows machine is set to obtain address automatically, but doesn't have any place set up to obtain it from.

Easy solution, Install Firestarter on the Linux box.

Only the Linux machine can connect to the internet right now.
The Linux machine is connected to the phone line via a serial external modem.
Currently I'm not sharing the connection at all. I first need to get the Linux and Windows machine to be able to talk to each other. I thought that Squid was the proxy program I should use to let the Windows machine use the Linux machine as a proxy to access the internet. Is that correct? But first I need the machines to at least be able to ping each other. Correct?
No, I'm going to try to get the Linux machine to share its connection with the Windows machine. e.g. the windows machine will use the linux machine as a proxy to connect to the internet.
Both machines have static ips for the ethernet card.
The Linux machine connects to the internet through an external dail-up modem.

I was looking through: /var/log/messages
and I found the following.
What do those errors mean? Is that my problem?

Thanks again guys!
Awaiting your helpful replies,
Elijah

you should check that there's no filtering rules active (besides you chosed NO FIREWALL).

To do so, type: IPTABLES -L
You should see 3 entries: INPUT, OUTPUT and FORWARD
All of them should say ACCEPT

Does your NIC in your Linux box happen to be a 3Com 3c905?

Looks like that is fine.
Here is the output:
No its integrated with my motherboard. It's a Onboard LAN Asus A7V8X-X (VT6102 [Rhine-II])
Does this work with Linux? It seems like Linux has detected it ok.

Thanks again,
Elijah

I think your problem may reside with a wonky driver for your card. It may be negotiating the wrong way. It is suggested to set it to auto (had to do that with my rtl8139 for any amount of speed with my cable modem). There's a bit about that on a few kernel newsgroups. The 3com has the same problem and its more common. Check this out: http://www.scyld.com/pipermail/netdr...ay/000022.html

and this:
http://www.scyld.com/network/ethercard.html

There might be light at the end of the tunnel.

On the network sharing, you might wanna try NAT instead of a proxy. Much less configuration, I believe. There is a good howto (but RH should do it automatically): http://www.netfilter.org/documentati...NAT-HOWTO.html

Good luck.

I have the same mobo & I have no problems...