Suse Networking Problem
 

Hello all.

I have set up a small LAN with a Suse 9.2 server doing all of the networking servbices (DNS, DHCP, etc.). I thought I had set it up correctly, but maybe I didn't. The thing is, if I try to use a Windows XP client on the network, it gets adn address just fine. It can ping other machines, by name and the internet as well. When I try a Suse linux client, it can get an IP, and can access the internet. However, it cannot ping other machines by name - I receive an 'unknown host' error. I check the logs of the DNS server when each of the clients connect, and there is no change - e.g., no errors are reported when the linux client tries to connect. I have set both Win/Lin clients to get all settings and options from the server through DHCP, and have not set any additional networking options on any of the machines. BOth are newly-installed desktops. It's a bit wieird how one can see other machines and the other can't - I mean, I thought that networking protocols were standard - what works on one computer should work on every other one in the network, provided they are in the same configurations, and I've done all ithat is in my knowledge to do that. On a semi-related note, Firefox browsing on the linux machine is a bit slow - it takes 8-10 seconds to access a page, giving me "Looking up website." This does not happen on Windows. There is no delay when pinging addressess from the command prompt on either machine, either. Apparently there's something screwy in the Linux machine configuration, but I'm ata loss as to what it is - I've tried settings all options available onthe Linux machine. Short of adding names to the /etc/hosts file (which I REALLY don't want to do, seeing as there are quite a bit of diverse machines that come on the network), I don't see what is preventing the linux client from access other hosts. I should mention that I can access any host from any OS by the IP address.
Also, I have checked on the linux machine the "/etc/resolv.conf" file, and it chcks out - it lists the search domain as our local one, and the nameserver as 192.168.0.2, which both are correct.

Any suggesttions? Thanks.

You mentioned two problems:

1) you can´t ping a local name
2) the linux box has a 8 second delay while accessing an internet destination

You can try the following

problem 1:

1a) check on the linux client if the following file
/etc/resolv.conf
contains a line nameserver which points to your local linux dns server

1b) check on the linux client if the following file
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
contains something like this
HOSTNAME="nameofmylinuxclient"

problem 2:

Linux is prepared for IPv6 but some providers are not they stil only support IPv4 so you have to disable IPv6

I made the following changes to /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias net-pf-10 ipv6

changed to:

alias net-pf-10 off


PS let us know if this was the sollution to your problem

That didn't quite seem to work. I checked all of those settings, and I still can't access hosts by name.

Just a couple of observations:

-When I attempt to ping "wlansrvr1" (or any other local host) there doesn't seem to be any thing sent to the nameserver. No lights flash on its network card, etc. In contrast, when I ping "google . com" (spaces removed), a request does get sent to the server, resolved, etc. Its almost as if it's just discarding local address pings entirely.

-Konqueror doesn't have that delay in accessing internet sites that firefox has - it access sites immediately.

-I have tried two different DNS servers on the server (Bind previously, and now a server called "Dnsmasq") with exact same results.

- It's strange how WinXP works fine, but Linux doesn't. I have taken great care to ensure that both are getting EVERY option concerned to networking that they can get from the DHCP server.

Make sure your dhcp server is allocating a domain name as well as a hostname,
then they will also be in the dhcp server's leases file for dnsmasq to find.

It may be that your Suse pc's kde/gnome can't find it's own hostname..