LAN question

[Paul Newell]

Tim wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-09-21 at 15:54 -0700, Paul Newell wrote:
>   
>> I am back to not understanding how to force chowder to be 192.168.2.11
>> given my attempts to install F9 specifying that in the network section
>> failed and gave me no network access to Internet or local LAN.
>>     
>
> During the install routine you're asked about configuring the network,
> but this is only for the install routine (should a network be needed
> during the installation).
>
> Post install, networking will default to being automatically configured
> by some external DHCP server.  Or, fallback to self configuration, using
> link local addresses (169.254.0.0 to 169.254.255.255), which won't be
> routeable (they'll *ONLY* work internally with other devices using the
> same addressing scheme - addresses starting with 169.254).  There's
> exceptions to that, but you'll probably find that they'll *ONLY* work
> with other devices on the same addresses.
>
> If you don't have a working DHCP server (or don't have a completely
> configurable one, as is often the case with modem/routers), you'd
> probably want to manually configure all network interfaces with fixed
> (static) addresses.  In which case each machine should have a unique IP,
> and be given the address of one or more DNS servers that they can
> access, and the IP address of the gateway through to the internet (e.g.
> your modem/router).  The hosts file in each computer should have a line
> for their own hostname and domain name, tied to their local IP, as well
> as the localhost address.  And, if you want each machine to talk to each
> other using hostnames, rather than numerical IP addresses, particularly
> if you want SSH to work (as it checks named addresses against IPs) you'd
> put the same details in each machine's host file.
>
> e.g. Abusing "local" as a top level domain name, for the example:
>
> # IP       domain name            aliases (one or more)
> 127.0.0.1  localhost.localdomain  localhost
> 192.168.1.1  one.local            one
> 192.168.1.2  two.local            two
> 192.168.1.3  three.local          three
>
> Resist attempts to put machine hostnames and domain names into the top
> local loopback addresses line.  That confuses things.
>
> If your network also uses IPv6, then there'll be an additional local
> loopback line like this:
>
> ::1   localhost6.localdomain6   localhost6
>
>   
Tim:

Thanks for the reply. The example provided looks alot like my original 
FC5 and, given your suggestion that I want to configure static, I think 
this is something I want to test next weekend (I turn into a pumpkin 
during the week while I code for salary (smile)).

I am really glad you added the note about what the heck that "::1" item 
is, I didn't put the "6" together with IPv6. I am going to disable IPv6 
until I get this sorted out so I have closer symmetry with the original.

I do not have a server, just three Linux boxes. Connectivity is handled 
through Linksys. I am resisting making one of the machines a server as I 
would prefer to keep each independent in its own right so long as they 
can talk together (static address or, if I am understanding Mitch's 
email correctly, a need to better understand link-local).

It does sound like you are suggesting to do the default setting for the 
install and change later (??? --- yes, this is a question)

If I may ask, would you suggest directly editing ifcfg-eth0 as I think 
Joel is suggesting? It seems after I read more about this file per link 
Joel provided of 
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-3-Manual/ref-guide/s1-networkscripts-interfaces.html
that this is where I need to set things up and that the system looks to 
this as the master reference for what to do.