A strange kettle of fish

First place I'd look is your /etc/samba/smb.conf file
Routers that issue a slightly non-standard but perfectly acceptable ip address range may simply not be blocked from allowing connected machines to view your system, and it's not a firewall, but a samba rule.

In my case, I have to add 10.1.1 to the list of allowed hosts in my /etc/samba/smb.conf, then all network traffic flows perfectly.

hosts allow = 10.1.1. 192.168.0. 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 192.168.79. 127.

Mike P

--------------------
Life may not be the party we thought, but while we're here, we may as well dance.
Break M$'s shackles from your feet and free yourself with Mepis

Tried that Mike, but it did not make any difference, but thanks anyhow. Ernie

erniehatt, try this. Can you successfully ssh or telnet from each system to the other? Also, when you "ping" are you pinging by name or IP address?

I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, but it is strange that both systems can connect to the Internet, but you can't adequately "see" each other. I'm wondering if your /etc/hosts file is messed up or /etc/resolv.conf. Check both of them on both machines.

Jon

PS, did you remove the aquarium?

Ernie, check to see if the video card and network adapter are sharing IRQs. If so, separate them.

"You have two labs?"
"Each has its place. At the university, I try to please the Federal Government. Here, I negotiate with God."

Thanks for the thought, not to show my ognorence, but where do I look for the IRQs. Ernie

Don't worry about it...See what

lspci -v

gives you from the console as root.

For example, the pertinent sections form this machine are as follows:

0000:00:08.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905 100BaseTX [Boomerang]
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 185
        I/O ports at e800 [size=64]
        Expansion ROM at dfff0000 [disabled] [size=64K]


0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)

        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.: Unknown device 7120

        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 201

        I/O ports at d000 [size=256]

        Memory at dffefe00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]

        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G550 AGP (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA])

        Subsystem: Matrox Graphics, Inc. Millennium G550 Dual Head DDR 32Mb

        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11

        Memory at dc000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]

        Memory at dfefc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]

        Memory at df000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M]

        Expansion ROM at dfec0000 [disabled] [size=128K]

        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

        Capabilities: [f0] AGP version 2.0

I did have a problem with this one, some time back, and had to switch that 3Com to a different slot to get it off IRQ 11, which the video card was using.

Not saying that this is what's happening in your case, but it is something to cross-off the list of things to check.

Another way of checking is to do K Menu --> System --> KInfoCenter --> Interrupts

In that case, you'll only see the IRQs assigned to each device, without all the other verbage.

Website: http://www.gabston-howell.org/
WebLog: http://www.gabston-howell.org/wl/
Must Reads for Newbies:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://www.tldp.org/

Thanks for the idea and the helpful tutorial, it didn't do any good, but as you say it eliminated another possible course. Ernie

It looks like another install, this time back to windows, I have just about had all the problems i am getting with LInux, one problem always seems to lead to another.It's a shame because I think it could be a great OS, but it still needs a lot of work before it will take off properly. Thanks to all those who have tried to help. Ernie

bye ernie
come back soon
we completely disagree about 'needs a lot of work before it will take off properly'

ideally one starts with a nice new machine, sometimes the latest and greatest, sometimes a bit less, and it all works

don't forget to time how long it takes to get all that lot in windows, and report back

As I said I like the disro, so decided that if I set up a duel boot with windows, at least I get to use my network and my duel monitors in reletive comfort and use Mepis for other stuff. Heres the time factor you asked for, in one and half hours, I had windows installed network running and duel monitors also running, plus 3d acceleration, that is against a couple of months in Mepis and still not right. Perhaps something will turn up to get it all together, but at the moment I can't stand the frustration

office software, games, antivirus, system locked down, spyware checker...
are they on yet?
printer and scanner drivers?

Printers and scanners No not yet, but then again I haven't got them up and running in mepis either. Games I don't play on the computer I have PS2, anti virus yes. Open office is running as is Photoshop CS2. I don't need much more. If I could get the network running, duel minitors I would be happy, it doesn't look as if that will happen. Ernie

If you run windows, then restart into Linux without doing a full shut-down first, the system bios holds some resource information and carries it over to the next boot.

I am a system builder and I can give you the equivalents based on a P42g machine.

Windows - 50 minutes
Updates - 70 minutes
Recommended extras - 20 minutes
and so after 2 hours and 20 minutes you will have windows and aah, thats about it, the equivalent of a house with no furniture or useful stuff at all.

In the same time, I can set up not only Mepis, All upgrades and a stack of additional software including 3 networked printers, scanner, various system tweaks, have started them all to complete the first-run and have 3 years worth of emails and business specific files in place and fully functional, including dual monitors, network shares and have the system fully backed up ready for burning to a DVD.

While I can understand your believing this issue is related to Linux, by reading this thread, I think your problems stem from a deeper hardware based (motherboard and/or BIOS) issue that may be compounded by your dual-booting and/or the hardware manufacturers contempt for Linux by the exclusion of Linux drivers and/or built-in compatibility.

MikeP

--------------------
Life may not be the party we thought, but while we're here, we may as well dance.
Break M$'s shackles from your feet and free yourself with Mepis

Mike P, you could be correct in most of what you say, I dont dispute the fact, that its not the fault of Mepis or any linus dostro come to that, I have over the last few months tried many and they all have problems is some area or other, I must admit Mepis has come closest to my needs and is in many ways the easiest to setup. I had a network up and running no problem, it worked to my requirements. I had 3d acceleration working ok, but I needed duel monitores and on advise from this forum changed from ATI to Nvidia (don,t get me wrong) I do not blame anybody for that it was my decision. Since changing the whole system has broken down, The network fails, the computer does not install properly if both monitors are plugged in, though most of you won't agree with me, I blame nvidia drivers. This did not happen with the ATI card, and it does not happen when I boot from a live cd of any disto. I have been putting computers together since the 1970s and I do have some Electical knowledge, my only failing is I never learnt programing, afraid its too late to alter that fact now. You explain these problems to me if you can. regards Ernie

I too don't know programming, but I do understand hardware and some of the quirks introduced by software and the hundreds of thousands of different configurations.

If I had your system as my own, I would start by removing all peripherals, including all PCI cards if any, then a full hard reset to factory settings, followed by a BIOS upgrade if any was available and tweaking it for best compromise between performance, functionality and stability. Next, setting the Plug and play OS option to NO if it's available so the BIOS handles all the hardware addresses instead of just the boot devices (stops many dual-booting issues), re-introduce the pci cards if any and plug in the peripherals, then install and configure the OSes and apps, making snapshots at each critical stage.

Hint - Sometimes, disabling or enabling a single BIOS feature does the trick.

If that failed to give the desired result, I would lose part of the system (probably the motherboard or video card) in favour of a different brand and do it all again until I had the level of operation I would be satisfied with.

Mike P

--------------------
Life may not be the party we thought, but while we're here, we may as well dance.
Break M$'s shackles from your feet and free yourself with Mepis

Mike,had a look the bios seems to be up to date, can,t see anyway to turn off the plug and play. I will give what you suggest a go, but I am not feeling to comfident about the results. In the meantime I have done a reinstall without nvidia driver and the network works ok. I will wipe everything clean and restart from fresh, I will leave all the periferals off and all the unnecessary bits and bobs, then add them a little at a time. and see what happens. Ernie

erniehatt, you're going to get a prize for persistence - i just hope that it is the install that you want.

drlizau, thanks, I suppose persistence is another word for stubborn, Im certainly that. I hate to be beaten, but I am going to prove a point, one way or the other. I will forgo the prize I can do without a kick in the pants. I do believe that I will not achieve all that I wish, do we ever. I may have to compromise a little, I can always run the duel monitors on the Win Laptop, I do a lot of image manipulation in Photoshop and the laptop screen is not the best for that. I generally have photshop running in mempis via Win4Lin Pro, but it is a touch slow. Ill accept not having the monitors as long as the network runs. I think I will just reinstall the Ati card and be done with it, I dont play games so is 3d acceleration a necessity. Regards Ernie

Hi folks, here is a run down on my latest install, and the resulting effects.
1) I vertually rebuilt the whole system.
2) I then fdisk both harddrives.
3) installed Mepis.
4) Both Monitors connected.
5) No propriety drivers installed
Results.

With the nevidia card.
installed ok but had no curser even on live cd.
Only booted in text mode
Network only worked one way.
could access internet.
would not boot with secondary monitor connected, even if not switched on, ok when removed.
The ppracer and gocart would not start up.

Another clean install
ATI card.
no problem in install.
Curser visible.
Network, could access both ways.
Both monitors running, though the secondary was split into three compressed screens.
Ppracer loaded and worked even though it was slow, gocart loaded but didn't run, I expected this.

Concequently, this is the install I have decided to stick with, I still have a couple of small
problems to address, which I am sure one of our experienced people could easily address.
As for the duel monitor problem I think I will give a miss, and set it up on the laptop, only decision
to make there is to decide on wether use the small 15inch or the 19inch one.
As I dont play games I wonder if 3d acceleration is necessary.
I won't make any adverse comments about the indiviual products, just put it down to bad experiences.
Ernie