[Coco] Linux box needs ethernet connection to router/web/LAN

[Frank Pittel]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2007 at 08:58:44AM -0700, Mike Pepe wrote:
> Gene Heskett wrote:
> >On Monday 23 April 2007, Roger Taylor wrote:
> >>As some of you might know, I have never gotten any Red Hat Linux
> >>version I've owned connected to the web or to another computer.  In
> >>other words, the main feature of Linux (networking) has yet to work for 
> >>me.
> >>
> >>What I want to do now is connect the dern thing to my Windows LAN and
> >>give it access to the web and possibly the other PCs shared folders,
> >>if anything.
> >>
> >>I use a LinkSys WRT54G 802.11 wireless router with 4 ethernet ports
> >>on the back.  This works great from Windows, and it's a broadband
> >>router as well so every PC has access to the web automatically.
> >>
> >>Since Linux is "supposed" to be smart like this, I assume I can
> >>connect that PC to the router and do minimal configurations to get it
> >>online.
> >>
> >>The Linux box will be used for compiling CGI-BIN scripts mainly.  The
> >>CoCo Cafe is one of those scripts I need to update.  But I don't want
> >>to have to keep moving the binary back over to Windows just to upload
> >>it to my server.  This required in the past a common hard drive I
> >>formatted from Windows using FAT and then had it automounted under
> >>Linux.  (My Linux box is a dual-boot Windows/Linux PC), but I ditched
> >>the Windows drive recently in favor of laptops.
> >>
> >>So, the old DEV1 tower PC, as I called it, is now just running
> >>Linux.  I will also get CCASM working for Linux if I can get my
> >>network set up right under Linux.
> >>
> >>Can someone walk me through the steps they would take from scratch
> >>for making Red Had 9 ready to connect to a router and on the web?
> >>
> >>By the way, I also recently upgraded the firmware on my LinkSys
> >>router to DD-WRT which is actually running under Linux on the
> >>router!  This hack is one of the best kept "secrets" for routers, and
> >>I've now got software power boosting for the antennas, the ability to
> >>act as a client to another router, and much more.  The modes are
> >>there for almost anything, unlike the limited modes of the stock
> >>firmware (which is already powerful, as it is).  So you can imagine
> >>why LinkSys has done everything it can to keep Linux hackers from
> >>taking control of newer versions of their router.  However, they keep
> >>doing it anyway!  :)
> >>
> >>I've got etc/hosts set with hostname = localhost
> >>Is that correct?
> >>The eth0 device I think is set to use IRQ7.  The PC has a PCI
> >>ethernet card called Network Everywhere or something like that, the
> >>one Walmart used to sell for about $20.  It has always worked
> >>flawlessly for Windows networking.
> >
> >First off Roger, Red Hat 9 is now very very old & gray, and has long 
> >since used up its allotted social security account.  Its an orphan, with 
> >no security updates for several years now.
> >
> >2nd, go into your routers web page and setup a dhcp server if its not 
> >already done.  I too use that best kept secret, dd-wrt, but running on 
> >an old 500mhz k6-iii box, no drives, just a half gig cf card it thinks 
> >is a hard drive so it boots from it, and with 320 megs of ram on that 
> >x86 board, ikt never touches the cf card again after bootup.  And while 
> >I do have the wifi card, I've not enabled it but once and then had to 
> >rezero the cf card losing my registration number before I could recover 
> >a working unit so I'm running the public version ATM.
> >
> >BrainSlayer will send me another, but wifi isn't that important to me 
> >since I can plug in a 6 foot cat5 when I need to run the laptop, and its 
> >a lot more secure.  I have an access point running too, but its not 
> >connected to the switch as long as I'm not playing with wifi.  I have a 
> >sniffer that can see 3 access points from here, only one of which is 
> >mine. :(
> >
> >Once the dhcp server is enabled, then all you should have to do is run 
> >system-config-network and tell the eth0 interface to use dhcp, plug in a 
> >cat5 and issue as root "service network restart".  At that point, you 
> >should be connected & able to ping your other boxes by address, or if 
> >you add them to /etc/hosts, by their names too.
> >
> >RH9 is NOT going to have any working wireless stuff at all, and this 
> >fedora 6 install here is just now getting this wireless stuff enabled, 
> >but the std cat5 ethernet works flawlessly even for RH9.
> >
> >However, the bootup system snoopers to see what kind of hardware you 
> >have, and the automatic loading of the drivers for that hardware is 
> >working quite smoothly in most distro's now.  If you want to wait for 
> >F7, which will be out in about a month, I'm going to update the FC5 on 
> >my laptop & maybe we can trade war stories about the install.  I'll 
> >upgrade, but you'll have to wipe the disks and start from scratch, no 
> >way will an RH9->F7 upgrade ever work.
> >
> >If you have something precious, put it on cd's, or mount another drive 
> >temporarily and make copies so the precious stuff is out of harms way 
> >when the installer formats the main drive.  Staples did have a usb 
> >powered, neatly cased 2" 40GB drive for $40 a couple of weeks back that 
> >would be very handy for such, but I don't know if any of those are still 
> >on the table where you are.
> >
> 
> I'd have to agree with Gene here. RH9 is ancient. I know we're a group 
> of vintage hardware/software enthusiasts, but I'd strongly suggest using 
> a more modern Linux distro. If you want to stick with Red Hat, Fedora 
> Core or Centos are good choices (I've had better luck with FC) and a 
> bunch of folks are doing the Ubuntu thing, so plenty of community 
> knowledge there.
> 
> Yeah, I may work at the evil empire, but I'm a linux guy at heart. My 
> first linux install was slackware 0.9, distributed on about 50 floppy 
> disks.
> 
> Ah, those were the days :)

I also agree that it's time to move on. Redhat 9 was nice in it's
day but with the rate that OSS software is imporved it is hopelessly
behind the "state of the art".

One advantage of doing a fresh installation of Fedora is that during
the installation you're prompted to setup the network. In fact the
option to use dhcp to get network information is already checked for
you as the default!!

Frank