connecting two computers

Forum: Networking
Topic: connecting two computers
started by: JohnJS

Posted by JohnJS on April 09 2007,20:27

Need help connecting two computers. (both DSL3.3. one Frugal one LiveCD)

First one:
modinfo eepro100
Ethernet controller: intel 82371ab/8/9 Ethernet pro 100) (Rev 8)
irq 11 base address 0x100

Second one:
modinfo 8139too
Ethernet controller; Realtek RTL 8139/8139/8139+c (rev 10)
irq 10 base address 0x2c00.

Will they communicate with each other?.
If so, what are the steps I need to take.
Realtek came with a driver cd.
Thank you.

Posted by torp on April 09 2007,22:10

you need a twisted pair cat 5 cable. once you boot up you should be connected.

torp

Posted by JohnJS on April 10 2007,01:55

Thanks torp.

My cable is eia/tia-568B 2 CAT 5e UTP.

Don't know about "twisted".

Posted by torp on April 10 2007,12:31

it should be yellow.....

torp

Posted by torp on April 10 2007,12:32

this signifies that it is used for pc to pc connections, instead of with a hub and a traditional network....

torp

Posted by JohnJS on April 10 2007,15:12

Thanks torp,

Will pick one up today and report back.

Posted by JohnJS on April 10 2007,18:54

Picked up new cable. Store calls it 'crossover'.

Bear with me as I had never attempted to do this before.

Do I need to change the 'addresses" when using netconfig?

Tried DHCP on both but 'failed'.

Tried one higher number on second computer for the addresses but to no avail.

On the secondary computer dmesg shows "link up" etc but this does not show up on the primary.

edit: that should be netcardconfig not netconfig.

Posted by dcrowder32 on April 10 2007,19:45

This is very basic networking. Many books are available. I have seen "Networking For Dummies" would be good here (I am not calling you a dummy).

You can do it two ways.

1. Get a small hub or switch. Buy two normal ethernet cables, color means nothing. These are the standard ones available at Best Buy, Office Depot,...

2. Buy one special ethernet cable called a "cross-over" cable. Just plug the two together, no hub needed.

Posted by curaga on April 11 2007,15:10

You don't need to change the ip's, unless they are the same.
Type "ip link list" to show if connection is up, and what ip address does it have.

This only starts the connection; do you need help in playing games in lan, or sharing files or so?

Oh yea, to test the connection, you know how to ping right?

Posted by JohnJS on April 11 2007,15:59

Thanks curaga,
ip link list:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,up> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueque
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00: brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST, MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 00:d0:b7:3f:70:f1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3:ppp0: <POINTOPOINT, MULTICAST,NOARP,UP> mtu qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 3 link/ppp.

Just for sharing files.
Don't know how to ping yet.
On booting my Compaq PRO at "network connection F12} I get "... check media cable"

edit: above with only one computer on.
With both on results of ip link list on clone computer:
line 1 the same.
line 2 last line:
link/ether 00:18:e7:08:d9:da brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

After years of MS Win I'm trying to learn Linux.

Edit2: with 'netcardconfig' both show the same addresses.
Both computers have 'box' as host.

Posted by fredvej on April 13 2007,12:53

DHCP won't work, you don't have a DHCP server that can hand out IP-addresses to the computers.

You will have to set an IP-addres on each computer.

Menu / Setup / Net Setup / netcardconfig

Posted by curaga on April 13 2007,15:34

Sorry, the command is "ip addr list" to show also the ip's. The different part was the MAC address of the other net card...

Ping: it sends a query packet where you tell it to, and if it reaches the destination, destination will respond and you will see how many milliseconds it took to ping back and forth... It is used to test network connections and speed. Usage:
"ping 192.168.0.2" where 192... is the ip address of the other comp. Stop it with control-c.

If you got lines like
"respond from host 192.... bytes=32 time 223ms TTL=128.." then your connection works.

Then to file sharing techniques...

Posted by curaga on April 13 2007,15:48

The most common method in Linux world is NFS (network filesystem)
It lets you do anything you can do in a local directory.. Unfortunately, DSL cannot act as a NFS server by default. This would be the best way, but you would have to get nfsd from somewhere.

Then there's nbd, alias network block device. For it you need both client and server programs..

Samba. The one M$ uses. It is not as flexible, but DSL can do both server and client by default..

Ftp. DSL can also be a ftp server and client by default.

Before starting Any servers, make sure the machine ISN'T connected to internet! That would be very bad.....

Posted by JohnJS on April 13 2007,15:58

Thanks curaga and freddy,
Nice to learn the acronymns.

Will let you know how I do.

Edit 4/16/07:
Still no luck. Will wait until the DSL book is available.
In the interim I will pick up a usb stick to transfer files.

Many thanks for the assistance.