Single NIC installation

[dopey]

So once and for all ... you already have all the config options you need. Honest you really do!

This is what I meant by "it would be difficult to put that in a wizard". In order to do this completely and dummy proof it would also need to setup the external router as well as the core network config, which would change based on the external router config. Of course, if you know what you're doing or willing to read up on it (it's really not that hard) then the wizard is really unnecessary.

[snowglyder]

So I had this working at one time, and then I started over with 0704 DVD because I couldn't get the UI working in LMCE, and now I can't get the DHCP working on LMCE working again. IS it necessary to actually edit the config file? I don't remember having to do that last time...

I'm using a single NIC because I have DSL and the only real working phone line is in a guest bedroom upstairs (the other lines don't get a fast connection), and I want my hybrid system in the living room that's downstairs. I networked my house, with the wires going to a closet in my office, which is where my wireless router is. Here's my single NIC setup:

DSL modem -> WAN port on wireless router -> Gigabit Switch (to other ports in the house) -> Hybrid LMCE

I set it up with 192.168.1.2 external, and 192.168.1.10 as internal. Gateway is my wireless router as 192.168.1.1. I disabled DHCP on wireless router, and enabled on LMCE, but nothing is pulling an ip. Suggestions?

[NikAmi]

I don't like that you have to use LMCE as the DHCP server. I agree that it is necessary if you are running some crappy little SOHO firewall or switch, but if you are running something like a SmoothWall or IPCop, those boxes should handle the DHCP. I am going to be placing my APs on an orange or purple interface and have a captive portal force all unknown connections to a registration page. This forces me to use the SmoothWall as the DHCP server for at least the APs. What LMCE could do is create a simple addon module for these firewalls that fed the necessary PXE boot image and informed the LMCE core upon a DCHP acknowledge.

[teedge77]

its for more than just pxe booting. it depends on what you have as far as hardware goes. just one example is voip. i use a cisco 7970 and it gets picked up by linuxmce. it then goes to asterisk and also gets an orbiter skin when linuxmce gives it an address.  what would the benefit be of having your firewall give dhcp over linuxmce or anything else?

[mohansen]

Note:  I have not tried this yet.  I will be building a system in the next week or so and plan to test.  I agree that having LinuxMCE be the center of everything is probably the preference for many but is not something that works the best for me.

Is it not possible to have 2 separate home networks?  Leave your existing home network and then install LinuxMCE with 2 NIC's.  NIC #1, the outside/public side of LinuxMCE would be connected to your existing home network.  It would get an address via DHCP from your existing router or static.  NIC #2 would then be the NIC used for all the PXE boot and other LinuxMCE related functions that need LinuxMCE to provide DHCP services.  You would end up with a separate network for all the content distribution without compromising your current network.

This would end up being 2 routers running in series to your provider.

ISP ------  existing router -----home network----- LinuxMCE ------- LinuxMCE network

[Zaerc]

Note:  I have not tried this yet.  I will be building a system in the next week or so and plan to test.  I agree that having LinuxMCE be the center of everything is probably the preference for many but is not something that works the best for me.

Is it not possible to have 2 separate home networks?  Leave your existing home network and then install LinuxMCE with 2 NIC's.  NIC #1, the outside/public side of LinuxMCE would be connected to your existing home network.  It would get an address via DHCP from your existing router or static.  NIC #2 would then be the NIC used for all the PXE boot and other LinuxMCE related functions that need LinuxMCE to provide DHCP services.  You would end up with a separate network for all the content distribution without compromising your current network.

This would end up being 2 routers running in series to your provider.

ISP ------  existing router -----home network----- LinuxMCE ------- LinuxMCE network

That shouldn't be much of a problem.

However I have read somewhere that LMCE prioritzes VoiP and video streaming, with this kind of setup it won't be able to manage the bandwidth used up by the home-network.  This may or may not be important to you.  Another issue could be: accessing fileservers (for instance) located in your home-network,  setting this up will probably be a bit of a hassle.   

[snowglyder]

So I had this working at one time, and then I started over with 0704 DVD because I couldn't get the UI working in LMCE, and now I can't get the DHCP working on LMCE working again. IS it necessary to actually edit the config file? I don't remember having to do that last time...

I'm using a single NIC because I have DSL and the only real working phone line is in a guest bedroom upstairs (the other lines don't get a fast connection), and I want my hybrid system in the living room that's downstairs. I networked my house, with the wires going to a closet in my office, which is where my wireless router is. Here's my single NIC setup:

DSL modem -> WAN port on wireless router -> Gigabit Switch (to other ports in the house) -> Hybrid LMCE

I set it up with 192.168.1.2 external, and 192.168.1.10 as internal. Gateway is my wireless router as 192.168.1.1. I disabled DHCP on wireless router, and enabled on LMCE, but nothing is pulling an ip. Suggestions?

Still haven't got this to work. Anyone?

[Matthew]

So I had this working at one time, and then I started over with 0704 DVD because I couldn't get the UI working in LMCE, and now I can't get the DHCP working on LMCE working again. IS it necessary to actually edit the config file? I don't remember having to do that last time...

I'm using a single NIC because I have DSL and the only real working phone line is in a guest bedroom upstairs (the other lines don't get a fast connection), and I want my hybrid system in the living room that's downstairs. I networked my house, with the wires going to a closet in my office, which is where my wireless router is. Here's my single NIC setup:

DSL modem -> WAN port on wireless router -> Gigabit Switch (to other ports in the house) -> Hybrid LMCE

I set it up with 192.168.1.2 external, and 192.168.1.10 as internal. Gateway is my wireless router as 192.168.1.1. I disabled DHCP on wireless router, and enabled on LMCE, but nothing is pulling an ip. Suggestions?

Still haven't got this to work. Anyone?

Have you looked at the "Single NIC" wiki entry lately? It's been updated since after you had last posted in this thread.

FWIW, LMCE doesn't need to DHCP to the entire LAN, even if it's a double NIC setup. With 2 NICs, LMCE will get its outside LAN segment configs from your existing DHCPd. And serve DHCP, with its various net configs (eg. PXE boot, QoS firewall/router, etc) to its inside LAN segment (along with LMCE services like media redirection), with whichever devices dependent on those services you attach to it. So if you can attach any LMCE devices (or none) to the inside segment, then the LMCE Core itself can connect its outside segment to your existing LAN like any other device. You just can't put onto the outside segment any media directors or any other devices LMCE manages by UPnP.

[Lowspirit]

Im running a Linksys wireless router at fixed IP 192.168.1.1. I set it up with DHCP enabled, and distributing IP numbers between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.120. The core (with a single NIC) is set up with fixed IP 192.168.1.8 internal and 192.168.1.9 external. The DHCP is activated here too, giving all pluto devices IP numbers ranged 192.168.1.121 - 192.168.1.140. The function of supplying IP numbers to non-pluto devicec is disabled. Now, when You add a new MD, it will be given a number within the pluto range. This setup work perfect for me running 3 MD's. All NAS and shared folders on the network is found by The core/MD correctly.

[Matthew]

Im running a Linksys wireless router at fixed IP 192.168.1.1. I set it up with DHCP enabled, and distributing IP numbers between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.120. The core (with a single NIC) is set up with fixed IP 192.168.1.8 internal and 192.168.1.9 external. The DHCP is activated here too, giving all pluto devices IP numbers ranged 192.168.1.121 - 192.168.1.140. The function of supplying IP numbers to non-pluto devicec is disabled. Now, when You add a new MD, it will be given a number within the pluto range. This setup work perfect for me running 3 MD's. All NAS and shared folders on the network is found by The core/MD correctly.

What stops the LinkSys router DHCP from responding to "pluto devices" like the MDs when the MDs request DHCP service on 192.168.1.x? Don't both DHCPds (including the LinkSys and the Core) offer IP#s?

[Lowspirit]

I have no idea. It just works. One moment and i will access my router and see if it shows the MD's in the DHCP tables....

Nope. Can't see them there. I wonder why that is.. Anybody knows?

[Matthew]

I have no idea. It just works. One moment and i will access my router and see if it shows the MD's in the DHCP tables....

Nope. Can't see them there. I wonder why that is.. Anybody knows?

My guess is that you're just lucky, and in your particular installation your LMCE DHCPd answers first.

I think DHCP has a really serious design deficiency that multiple DHCPds on a single ethernet segment can't negotiate with each other to serve different requests. And that DHCP itself doesn't have an "include <URL>" directive to at least approximate that kind of server P2P cooperation. As soon as you add a smarter DHCPd to a segment, you depend on the dumb one to divulge its legacy configs and get out of the way properly at network redeployment time. Which shouldn't require any network engineering on anything but the new device. But now I'm just bitching in the wind.

[Lowspirit]

Come to think of it.. At the dawn of time (about 2 weeks ago) when  first found LMCE i ran DHCP on both core and Linksys. Every time i did that, the core got authority over the router, changing the IP's of all computers within the network from 192.168.1.xxx to 192.168.80.xxx. Every time. Does anybody know why this is? Why the core gets the first shot over the router?

[joesd72]

Come to think of it.. At the dawn of time (about 2 weeks ago) when  first found LMCE i ran DHCP on both core and Linksys. Every time i did that, the core got authority over the router, changing the IP's of all computers within the network from 192.168.1.xxx to 192.168.80.xxx. Every time. Does anybody know why this is? Why the core gets the first shot over the router?

When the Lease on the IPs are half way up they request new ones. I would assume that your core just responds to the request to renew with and IP sooner. So from my experance most store bought routers that server DHCP give a lease time of one day to three days (I think one is more common). So half way through the lease time (12 - 36 hr) the PCs sends out a request to renew that lease and the Core responds first.

Not that I commonly set up up two DHCP servers on the same net, but I have several times and one always seems to be more responsive for some reason and convert the network shortly. the only way around it would be limit the amount of available IPs, but that wouldn't guarantee what devices got IPs on what network.

**Feature Request within** another option would be let the DCE be the DHCP server and hack the DHCP config file to have it give out the router as the Gateway instead of itself (and obviously have them with the same IP scheme). it would be nice as a built in feature of the DHCP web configuration to manually define the gateway with out hacking the file as a way to dumb things down for the average user.

I think MCE is a great product, but we have to get some of this stuff more friendly to the average n00b or id10t user other wise they will stay in Bill Gates cult. I think a small network config script that they can ask if this will be the DHCP server AND the GateWay also might make that easier.

I'm personally onboard with the people that want a separate router for security reasons. I'd rather a separate router be out front to be hacked instead of a system that controls my whole house. I use IPCOP and can port forward what I need to make the features work if I know all the ports. I would accept using LMCE as my router also if the DHCP and firewall were more configurable (need my VPN specially). maybe someone can fork IPCOP and plug it in as LMCEs firewall.

[Matthew]

**Feature Request within** another option would be let the DCE be the DHCP server and hack the DHCP config file to have it give out the router as the Gateway instead of itself (and obviously have them with the same IP scheme). it would be nice as a built in feature of the DHCP web configuration to manually define the gateway with out hacking the file as a way to dumb things down for the average user.

I think MCE is a great product, but we have to get some of this stuff more friendly to the average n00b or id10t user other wise they will stay in Bill Gates cult. I think a small network config script that they can ask if this will be the DHCP server AND the GateWay also might make that easier.

I'm personally onboard with the people that want a separate router for security reasons. I'd rather a separate router be out front to be hacked instead of a system that controls my whole house. I use IPCOP and can port forward what I need to make the features work if I know all the ports. I would accept using LMCE as my router also if the DHCP and firewall were more configurable (need my VPN specially). maybe someone can fork IPCOP and plug it in as LMCEs firewall.

There are going to be two net topos for LMCE deployments: an entry level setup with no IP PNP net devices, often on a reused existing PC HW to try it out with just the existing single NIC, and an existing DHCP and router. With no IP PNP devices to support (excluding storage shares, which don't need LMCE DHCP), LMCE does not need to be the DHCP server. LMCE never really needs to be the router (even the 2-NIC default can sit behind a separate router on the outside LAN segment), though of course firewall features do require 2 NICs. When people want to support IP PNP devices, they can upgrade to a 2-NIC PC or install a second NIC, though some people will start with that full version.

So yes, the LMCE Network Settings page should expose the dhcpd.conf "routers" (and maybe even the "next-server" for hosting the bootfile outside the Core) option that's already in the file. The Wizard should offer a high-level switching option between the two scenarios, which the initial installer should also accept.

LMCE is supposed to serve a home audience, not (necessarily) a hacker audience. Even when pro installers are deploying at a customer's site, the time saved and mistakes avoided with such automation will lower costs. And of course nontech consumers will find that significant barrier to entry dropped. Which is the main benefit of using competitor products like Windows MCE: it's really simple, in usage terms that the mass market can easily understand.

You should request a UI feature in Mantis (Category: Webadmin / Severity: feature).