Solved- Windows Server 2003 and Mepis internet issues
Posts: 33
Problem: I seem to get a connection with Mepis, but no traffic.
The situation: I am currently trying to put in two Mepis desktops into a mini computer lab (with 2 other windows machines) at a house that, when school starts, will be home to about 50 people. I believe that the problem has something to do with a server that the computer chairman before me had put in to allow people to use a printer through the network (it also has a few network folders and assigns IP addresses and such). This server is running Windows Server edition 2003.
I installed Mepis on my laptop a few weeks ago to test it out and I was sure to include the workgroup when it asked during installation (I think I provided it with other network info, too). I had my laptop plugged in to ethernet cable during installation, and when I start in MEPIS it seems to be connected, but there is no traffic and nothing comes up on my browser. My Windows partition and the other windows computers in the house work just fine for browsing the internet.
I am not used to working with servers, so feel free to ask me more details (and if you could tell me how to find the details, I would greatly appreciate it). I would like to keep the network in it's current state as much as possible until I find out how people will react to these Mepis computers.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully we can get these Mepis computers up before the semester starts. This will be something new for everybody, and I would like them to get a good first impression of it.
Basics answers
Posts: 33
1. I got an IP address, Mac address, broadcast address, and Mask, and the etho interface gives me my default gateway.
After that I get this message after ifconfig, I don't know what the deal with this is:
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:56 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:104 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:12463 (12.1 KiB) TX bytes:8918 (8.7 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xcc00
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:85 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:85 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:6128 (5.9 KiB) TX bytes:6128 (5.9 KiB)
2. I can ping the server, I don't have the other IP addresses handy.
here is an example
64 bytes from {server ip}: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=0.300 ms
3. www.mepis.org is an alias for mepis.org.
mepis.org has address 64.34.164.39
www.mepis.org is an alias for mepis.org.
www.mepis.org is an alias for mepis.org.
mepis.org mail is handled by 0 mepis.org.
can you ping
Posts: 2299
can you ping www.mepis.org?
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
No positive result
Posts: 33
I did a simple "ping www.mepis.org" and I got no feedback from Konsole. I even monitored my traffic, and I think the peak incoming traffic was about 60Bytes every 15 seconds or so, but other then that it was consistently zero.
Does the server require user
Posts: 12
Does the server require user authentication?
Since you get an IP and get
Posts: 2299
Since you get an IP and get DNS, this looks like either a default gateway or a Firewall thing. It is most probably not an issue with MEPIS.
Start checking the default gateway configuration. See if you can ping the gateway. Then try pinging the next hop. Do a ping to an existing outside IP address (e.g. 80.58.0.33) and see if you can ping it.
What is the network layout? You have a couple of workstations and then what? A router, a PC that acts as router? Tell us a bit about that.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
No user authentication
Posts: 33
No user authentication needed.
I pinged the gateway, but I couldn't ping out. I didn't get a chance to ping the next hop, I'll get that figured out along with a network layout soon. The network is kind of a mess, a network "map" was not given to me and I'm having a little trouble getting it figured out. I'll hopefully have a network layout posted in a couple days.
Just Unplug Wires
Posts: 5513
The network is kind of a mess, a network "map" was not given to me and I'm having a little trouble getting it figured out. I'll hopefully have a network layout posted in a couple days.
If the network is that messed up, simply go through and unplug wires. When someone yells, "Hey, my network connection went down!" you know that you found the connection to their box. Simply repeat the process until you have them all mapped. 
Jon
The ability to comfortably use a computer is directly proportional to desire to listen, learn, and experiment, and is inversely proportional to the fear, anger, and stubbornness that you show.
That is a valid network
Posts: 33
That is a valid network description, so does anyone have any other ideas for what could be wrong?
When I unplug and plug the linksys router back in while the computer is on and the ethernet cable is plugged in, then it works, but after a little while it likes to revert.
Could Be The Router
Posts: 5513
Kent, I've had some of the older Linksys routers just "go bad" after a while. At the time I thought it might be a pure electrical problem when I lived elsewhere. I thought the power was having enough glitches that it would ocassionally cause the Linksys to loose its mind.
To find out, I would suggest very heavy simplification of your setup. If only temporarily. Disconnect the router from the modem completely. Connect directly from your modem to ONE COMPUTER and see what happens. If it works, then you know the ISP, modem, and your one computer works (and the wires too). If it doesn't work, then the ISP might be renewing the DHCP lease too often and you may need to check some of those settings. Or the cable could be bad, or the modem (does it need re-provisioning?), or the network cable to your compuer.
Next, add the router and plug only the one, known good computer into it. Try again. Still working? Good. Either add a couple more computers directly into the router and test them. If they still work, then the router and the other computers are working fine. Plug a switch in and repeat...
I know that some of these tests may have to be performed over a period of time since, if it's a glitch with the router, it may work for a while and then not work (gotta love tracing down hardware problems). But by simplifying your layout "for testing" it will give you a good excuse to map out exactly how everything plugs together. Oh, you might check out some of your network cables too. They can get messed up too. So if you suspect any of them, swap them out for other cables to see what happens.
Let us know what you find out.
Jon
The ability to comfortably use a computer is directly proportional to desire to listen, learn, and experiment, and is inversely proportional to the fear, anger, and stubbornness that you show.
I've actually tried these
Posts: 33
I've actually tried these sorts of thing, and a lot of what you said makes sense. I power down and power up the hardware and it works, but only for awhile (anywhere from 15 minutes to a few days).
Well, I am running a dual-boot laptop, but all tests where done in Mepis, and when I would switch from one source to another I would power down and power up the hardware. I could not connect through the modem, but I could through the router, and through the 24-port switches. I believe I was not getting a connection until I reset the power each time I connected.
The router is a Linksys WRT54G wireless router.
I think we may be getting somewhere. What's next?
Network Setup
Posts: 33
Looking at it again, I was making a mountain out of a molehill.
The internet comes into the house through a modem, goes to a linksys router which also gives us wireless.
Also hooked up to the Linksys is a netgear 8-port switch in the mini computer lab, and through that the lab computers are connected, and the printer, and the server.
The linksys is also connected to two 24-port switches that connect to the rooms in the house.
Thats how it looks to me anyway, I'm going to get a second opinion I hope. It does look like a mess.
I should probably add that I
Posts: 33
I should probably add that I cannot successfully bypass the router, windoze and linux alike cannot deal with that. I do not believe the router is giving out IPs or dealing with DHCP (at least, the setting "DHCP Server" is set to disable).
What is making the router so critical to the connections?
Your router must configured
Posts: 1634
Your router must configured to offer DHCP addresses to your internal LAN, unless you're using static addressing on the private side of your router (which can be a real pain).
Use DHCP if you can.
Your DHCP scope must be set to a number sufficiently large to accommodate all of your network nodes (workstations, web-administered printers or cameras, router and server interfaces, etc.).
In some cases, this may be an unexpectedly large number...for example, in our home network, I cannot work without there being 115 dynamically assigned IP addys available in my address space--this in addition to the statically-assigned addys that I use internally. Make sure you have allocated sufficient address space and dynamic IPs in your DHCP pool.
Workstations must be configured for a default gateway corresponding to the internal IP address of your router.
Probably overkill, in view of your question, but info nonetheless.
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115 Dynamically Assigned IP Addresses?
Posts: 5513
...for example, in our home network, I cannot work without there being 115 dynamically assigned IP addys available in my address space--this in addition to the statically-assigned addys that I use internally.
Man EnigmaOne, I'd hate to see your house's electricity bill!
Jon
The ability to comfortably use a computer is directly proportional to desire to listen, learn, and experiment, and is inversely proportional to the fear, anger, and stubbornness that you show.
wind and solar power
Posts: 4864
we're not up to 115 internal addresses but we have already installed a wind generator and shortly solar panels to help provide the electrons to drive the computer gear.
agreeing with EnigmaOne
Posts: 4864
you need something to provide DHCP addresses or you have to provide static addresses to everything.
The windows_server may be providing some dhcp addresses - check that before setting it to "ON" at the router, although from your description the server is not in a position to provide dhcp addresses to the whole network.
Not sure if you are joking
Posts: 12
Not sure if you are joking about the solar/wind or not... if not, then very cool. I know of solar panels for right at about $3/watt, when purchasing 180watt panels. I think they are monocrystalline cells. I'm not selling them and make no $$$ on these, just aware of where they are available @ that $.
no joke
Posts: 4864
it's being slowly created to reduce our dependence on the grid.
http://www.billiau.net/~liz/energy/P1000248.JPG
shows the turbine and
http://www.billiau.net/~liz/energy/P1000249.JPG
gives you a scale, in which the person is about 180cm tall
what is that, a one kw
Posts: 12
what is that, a one kw spinner?
I think I have a solution. I
Posts: 33
I think I have a solution. I took an old P2 box and converted it to a firewall using Smoothwall Firewall software and used it to replace the Linksys router. I'll try to post again in a week if everything goes well, if not, you'll hear from me sooner.
good idea
Posts: 4864
i think that is a good idea
I am not currently using smoothwall and cannot comment if it can also be the print server.
I would work towards linux servers eg replace the Win2003 box (if it was my network)
I'm not using smoothwall in
Posts: 33
I'm not using smoothwall in place of any server functions, so no issues there. It is just replacing the router.
I would like to replace the server OS. I'm not sure what exactly I'd need to do in order to accomplish that, being very uninformed about servers. I wouldn't have a problem with talking about that here, although I'm not sure if it is the correct place for it (or maybe it is).
Would there be any pros for customizing MepisLite with server software or would I be better off with something like Ubuntu server? To me it sounds like a great opportunity to learn, getting things set up on 'Lite, but is it practical?
Also, with the semester starting soon I don't know how much time I would have to dedicate to a project like this.
Let me know what you think. I'm curious now.
Considering you have a box
Posts: 2299
Considering you have a box with Win Server 2003, you can run a more modern MEPIS version as a server. Once configured, you start it without the GUI and let it spin. When necessary, you just start X and log into KDE.
You could experiment with your own workstation, and configure it as a server. Document all steps and when you feel confident, you install MEPIS on the real server, repeat the necessary configuration steps and off you go..
Most important questions:
- what does the 2003 server do now? (File and Print sharing, internet server, proxy, mail server???)
- what is the security model (different user accounts, application rights, disk quota)
- do you have any backup / storage in place? If so, only for the server or also for the clients?
- Groupware applications?
I think you would have to open a new thread for this, but it would be a nice little project.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
Playing on what Carl just
Posts: 1634
Playing on what Carl just said:
If you can at all possibly swing it, try to leave what works in place and find another machine to add to your network and configure it to take over the server functions currently provided by your win-whatever box.
When you're done, you can just pull your win-box, wipe the drive and have another chassis to experiment around-with (multi-booting various distros comes to mind immediately).
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Even better that way! Newbie
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Even better that way!
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
...after all...one can never
Posts: 1634
...after all...one can never have too many computers at the home or office. 
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Everything still seems to be
Posts: 33
Everything still seems to be working with the smoothwall. Now the next thing on the list of things to do is to get them to work with the network printer, a Sharp AR-M237. I got the driver off of Sharp's Canadian site, but it seems to be specifically for Red Hat/Fedora.
I actually started a thread for this a long time ago, but priorities went to just getting these computers to work. I'm going to re-visit the thread, and if anyone has any ideas please go here:
MEPIS Project Forum » SUPPORT » Hardware » Printers » Other Printers » Does the Sharp ARM237 work?
I will begin describing the problem there by tomorrow.
And once that is done it should take care of all the essential Mepis issues at this place. People start moving in soon, too, and I think I will have a decent enough setup to impress the people who are open-minded enough to give Mepis an honest try.
while u were gone, was a
Posts: 12
while u were gone, was a reboot needed by anybody there? Anybody use the MEPIS tower? Just curious what comments MEPIS is getting by the 20-something crowd.
No one seems to really be
Posts: 33
No one seems to really be noticing the computers yet, but I want the printer to work with them before I endorse them to heavily.
So whoever can help me with it, please take a look at the other thread.
This never really was a Mepis, or even a Linux- related problem you know, the only thing was that my Mepis machines were affected more than the rest of the computers in the house. Thank you everyone for your support, everything seems to work fine, the only complaint now is that the computers in the house that have Limewire can't use it to download anything outside of our network. In my opinion, not a bad idea, but they are complaining about it.
So thanks again, and I hope that I can get these printers working soon too. This thread should be marked "solved" sometime soon.
Begin with the basics: 1.
Posts: 2299
Begin with the basics:
1. Open a console and do ifconfig. Is an IP address assigned
2. Can you ping the server and the other machines?
3. Can you do a DNS lookup? What happens when you issue 'host www.mepis.org'? Do you get an IP back?
This looks like either a basic IP thing or a DNS problem. Let us know the results.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question