DHCP server on both NICs

[jimmejames]

I just got an Asus M3A78-EM (will update wiki shortly), but am having problems with what seems to be the feeding of ip address on both NICs. 

The board has an integrated NIC and I added a second pci based NIC.  I wanted the onboard NIC to be on the internal network (it is gigabit to fit my gigabit switches) and the pci NIC to be on the external network.  BTW- I have a linksys router that I use to split the internet connection just after a cable modem- my core feeds directly off this router and my GF's computer as well so that she receives a .1.xx address and the other computer receive a .80.xx from the core.

The problem:  I ipconfig /renew her XP based machine and received a .80.xx address AND on the other internal network I was able to PXE boot a media director.  That is to say that LMCE was acting as a dhcp server and feeding my GF's computer through the linksys router and it was feeding ip addresses through the external network.

Now, what I really don't understand was that when the media direct was booting from the network I happened to mention that it was given the ip address .1.102 and the default gateway was .1.1.  It seems that the core was feeding .80.xx on the external network and was allowing the router to pass ip's through the core to feed the media director, but the media director was still receiving the PXE information.

With that all said and done, I figured I just had the wires on the core flipped- so I manually changed them (instead of using the admin configuration).  Now, the media director doesn't receive the PXE signal and the core can't get online.  I looked at the MAC addresses physically stamped on the cards, compared them with the network configuration in the admin pages, and found that I had the wiring correct the first time.

This is an AMD 64bit installation.  Has anyone else seen a similar scenario?

Thanks

[jimmejames]

OK-

So forget the previous and let's start slow.  How do I tell if my nic is supported by Linux/Kubuntu/LinuxMCE?  I am not able to receive ip addresses from a DHCP server and I am not able to act as a DHCP server on that nic.  LinuxMCE does, however, find the mac address of the NIC.

Does this mean it is supported?

BTW- this would be an excellent (fairly cheap) core.  It's an AM2+ motherboard that supports a lot.  It has a hdmi port and digital audio (will add to wiki, but want to get the nic card sorted).

Thanks

[slapshot]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I am experiencing similar network problems as well. Basically, my network is like this:

Cable Modem --> Vonage VOiP router (DHCP enabled) ---> (eth1) Core/Hybrid (eth0) -->Linksys WPG54GS (w/ DHCP disabled) --> Wireless Laptops

I used the ethtool and I am only getting results for eth1. Eth1 appears to be working fine, and it is using the driver forcedeth ver 0.60. I am getting my pictures from Flick and I can surf the web on the core/hybrid.
For ethtool eth0, I am getting "no data available", for ethtool -i eth0, it is using the driver tulip ver 1.1.15. Also, I can connect to the wireless router, but I have no access to the internet.

Any help is appreciated,

John

[slapshot]

Dave,
   The reason the Vonage VOiP router is outside the LMCE network is because I have been using Vonage since 2005 and have one of the first generation routers. Believe me, if it is not the first device attached to the cable modem, then I loose my phone service. I don't know why, I just accept it and move on as best I can.
My IP Addresses are as follows:
eth0: 192.168.1.99 (Set up in Pluto Admin)
eth1: 192.168.15.150 (Assigned by the Vonage VOiP router)
      Near as I can tell, nothing connected inside the Core/Hybrid can get out to the internet. Is there a setting that I am missing?

~John

[tschak909]

Ditch Vonage, get Broadvoice, and let LinuxMCE manage your phones. You'll be glad you did.

-Thom

[jimmejames]

Dave-

When I get home, I will run those commands and post what I find.  ASUS ships this MB with linux drivers and a readme on how to install.  I installed the driver:

1) tar vjxf r81...
2) make clean modules
3) make
4) make install
5) depmod -a
6) insmod ./src/r8168.ko
7) lsmod | grep r8168  (at this point the driver showed up on the next line).
ifconfig -a (this showed, as before, the eth0 and eth1 with mac addresses and what not, but it's still not up).


John-

My setup is:
Cable Modem --> Linksys WRT54G (DHCP enabled) ---> (eth1) Core/Hybrid (eth0) --> Media Directors
                                       |_________________----> GF's computer

The eth1 and Candice's get .1.xx address and eth0 is supposed to deliver .80.xx.  What's odd is that in the above setup, Candice's computer was getting 192.168.80.253 and the media directors were not receiving a signal.  Plus, my GF's could hit the core (.80.1) but not the internet and the core could hit the internet.  Firewall disabled.

Are you running the AMD 64bit version? 

Thanks,
James

[slapshot]

James,
     Yup, I am running the 64 bit version. It looks like maybe you have eth0 and eth1 mixed up if your GF's laptop is pulling that IP. Did you go into the WebAdmin and click on the "swap adapters" in the Network Settings window? I have been contemplating on just loading the i386 version, for some reason it seems more stable.

Thom,
     I am hesitant to ditch Vonage until I get my networking issues squared away. I have looked at Broadvoice and I looks comparable to what I have now with Vonage, but that will come down the road when I get just the basic set up done. What I would like to do is to blow out the OS on the WRT54GS and install DDWRT on it, I have heard it is a lot more stable and you can tweak the settings for it to work better. Unfortunately my router is a v. 5 and not capable of handling the install (it's too large).

~John

[slapshot]

Well,  since I am on vacation from work this week, I may just re-install the i386 version  As far as Vonage goes, the default IP address for the Vonage router is 192.168.15.1, since this is on the outside of the LMCE network, this should not matter as the only IP address this assigns is to eth1. I have LMCE running as DHCP and I changed the numbers that it assigns to match what the WPG54GS uses (default is 192.168.1.1).
Since I live in a condo and don't want to invest the time and money into wiring  cat5e throughout the whole place.

John

[jimmejames]

OK- Update.

External_IFACE:  eth1
External_Mac:  **********39  (this is the onboard nic)
External_IP        (blank)
External_netmask (blank)
external_dhcp:  1
internal_iface: eth0
internal_mac:  **********16 (dlink pci nic)
internal_ip: 192.168.80.1
internal_netmask:  255.255.255.0
gateway: 0.0.0.0
DNS1: **.**.**.5
DNS2: **.**.**.67  (both of these are the same as what is provided from my cable modem to my WRT54g)

Internet is not accessable on the core.

I did the ctrl+alt+f2 and ran:

ethtool eth1
It says a bunch of stuff, but the:
Supported ports: [ FIBRE ]
Port: FIBRE
Transceiver: Internal
Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
Link detected: no

ethtool -i eth1
driver: r8169
version: 2.2LK
firmware-version: (blank)
bus-info: 0000:03:00.0

It is plugged in directly to my WRT54G and the lights are blinking on both.  I've tried different cables that I know work.

TIA,
James

[Zaerc]

...
I have LMCE running as DHCP and I changed the numbers that it assigns to match what the WPG54GS uses (default is 192.168.1.1).
...

That is very wrong for several reasons, do yourself a really big favor and leave it at 192.168.80.X as it was.

[jimmejames]

First of all- thanks for all of the help.  It would be much easier for people to read the posts and move on without giving it a second thought.  The fact that help is given without expectations is much appreciated.  I would like to think that I give back by updating the wiki and trying the hardware that I have, but there are certainly those that give a whole lot more.

/epilogue

I will certainly switch the cables and though the admin pages swap the interfaces to see if that changes things.  It seems odd to me that the core receives the DNS's from the WRT54G but does not get the gateway ip address.  Which leads to 3 questions:

1) I don't mean to argue, but wouldn't it be easier to diagnose the NIC problems when it is setup as it is?  In a 'passive mode' if you will where all it needs to do is receive an ip address from the network rather than having the core be the DHCP server on that nic?  My knowledge of these things is very limited. 

2) Is it necessary for eth0 to be the external and eth1 be the internal?  Does LMCE only act as a DHCP server on eth0?  If so, that would explain my initial findings where the DHCP server seemed to be passing ip address up the external network to my WRT54G and onto my GF's computer.

3) How do you know if your nic is supported?  I was reading this: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Unrecognized_NIC but as that it is the core and not a MD, I don't know if it will PXE boot.  What makes me believe that it works is: it can read the MAC address, and receives the DNS information from the router.  What makes me believe it doesn't work is that it doesn't receive an ip address from the router.  I have mac address filtering on, but I think that only applies to the wireless network.  I will add this mac address to the allowed list just to be sure.

Thanks

[slapshot]

...
I have LMCE running as DHCP and I changed the numbers that it assigns to match what the WPG54GS uses (default is 192.168.1.1).
...

That is very wrong for several reasons, do yourself a really big favor and leave it at 192.168.80.X as it was.

Thom... you are starting to sound like the Vonage Tech support

They said the same thing about trying to change the IP for the Vonage VOiP Router. Anyways, I think I am in the same boat as I was last night. I installed the i386 version of LMCE instead of the AMD 64 version. I also kept the default settings for the network as they asked during the install. I also left the DCHP enabled on the wireless router. So now, my configuration looks like this:

Cable Modem --> Vonage VOiP Router, 192.168.15.1 --> eth0 (Core/Hybrid) 192.168.80.1 --> Eth1 192.168.80.103 --> WPG54GS Router (DHCP enabled) 192.168.80.2 --> Wireless Laptops (192,168.80.1XX).

Now I have internet access on both laptops like I am suppose to and my Vonage phone works. I am still getting "No data available" when I type ethtool eth1. Should I be worried about this?

[Zaerc]

...
I have LMCE running as DHCP and I changed the numbers that it assigns to match what the WPG54GS uses (default is 192.168.1.1).
...

That is very wrong for several reasons, do yourself a really big favor and leave it at 192.168.80.X as it was.

Thom... you are starting to sound like the Vonage Tech support

They said the same thing about trying to change the IP for the Vonage VOiP Router. Anyways, I think I am in the same boat as I was last night. I installed the i386 version of LMCE instead of the AMD 64 version. I also kept the default settings for the network as they asked during the install. I also left the DCHP enabled on the wireless router. So now, my configuration looks like this:

Cable Modem --> Vonage VOiP Router, 192.168.15.1 --> eth0 (Core/Hybrid) 192.168.80.1 --> Eth1 192.168.80.103 --> WPG54GS Router (DHCP enabled) 192.168.80.2 --> Wireless Laptops (192,168.80.1XX).

Now I have internet access on both laptops like I am suppose to and my Vonage phone works. I am still getting "No data available" when I type ethtool eth1. Should I be worried about this?

Reading is not really one of your strong skills now is it?  Anyway, this is the setup you likely want:

Cable Modem <--> Vonage VOiP Router (DHCP enabled) 192.168.15.1 <--> eth0 192.168.15.X (Core/Hybrid)  eth1 (DHCP enabled) 192.168.80.1 <--> [not the WAN port!] WPG54GS Router 192.168.80.X <--> Wireless Laptops (192.168.80.X)

And if you must configure that wifi-router staticly then you should make a hole in the dhcp ranges handed out by the core. 

[slapshot]

Sorry Zaerc, the South Park type avatars threw me ... my bad, I hope you (and Thom) are not offended. Anyways, I tried it the way you recommended and for some reason the Core is not handing out IP Addresses and I am showing limited or no connectivity on both the Windows and Ubuntu Laptops. I don't know what else to try. My experience with LMCE is limited and my experience with Ubuntu is only a little more. Any additional information or you can provide, or additional documentation you can suggest would be appreciated. I think I am getting cross eyed from reading the man pages

~John

[slapshot]

Dave,

     You are right, my wireless router is a WRT54GS, I don't regularly look at the model number.  In fact, the last time I looked at this router was about 6 months ago when I wanted to install DD-WRT on it, but because it is ver. 5, the flash was too small. But I digress, I would like the laptops to both be on the internal network so they can be used as web orbiters. I would try eliminating the router, but I don't have a switch or a hub to put into place of the router yet.  I don't think that the router is the real problem, though.
     I think that the problem is that I cannot get the Core/Hybrid to work as a DHCP server. Every time, I disconnect both the Vonage Router and the Linksys Router and set them up with DHCP disabled. Then reconnect them, then I go into the Network Settings under the Web Admin page and enter the data to run DHCP services at the core. When I connect either wired or wireless, I get an odd looking IP address with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 and I have no access to the internet and I cannot even ping eth0 or eth1 on the Core. I am at a loss right now.

~John