Re: tlug: LAN Card

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

Jack Morgan (yojack@example.com) wrote:

>     I am trying to get my Linux box connected to the internet. I have a LAN
> card connected to a router and not a modem or an Ethernet card. Most of the

I'm kind of confused by your statement that you have a LAN card but
not an Ethernet card.  I haven't seen a computer that had a token
ring LAN card in it for a long, long time.  Can you clarify that part?
But assuming that you in fact do not have an Ethernet card, then:

OK, the best thing to do here (because it will work the easiest and
be the fastest) is to get an ethernet card and either a crossover cable
or a small hub (you need a hub only if your router doesn't have one
built-in) and connect that way. 

The only other option you may have is if the router has the capability
to function as a TA.  I don't know for sure if any will
do this, but SOHO types such as the MN-128 SOHO and the RTA-50i (AKA Net 
Volante) might.  If they will, then you need to read the router docs
to see how to set it up, and connect it to your serial port.

Routers I know will NOT function as a TA are any "regular" (that is,
ones that aren't aimed at the SOHO market), such as the Ascend Pipeline
and the Yamaha 100 and 200 series routers.  They have serial ports, 
but those are only for connecting a serial console for configuring them.
If you have one of these, that is the only way to configure it (or 
by telnet, once you have set up a config over a serial console).  
If you have a SOHO router, it may either have a web interface that you
can configure it with, or some GUI-based config utility (which likely
only works under That Other Operating System); check the router docs
for more info on that, too.

Assuming you don't have global IP addresses for your machine(s), you
will want to configure the router as a dial-up router with demand
dial, and probably to use bandwidth-on-demand (BOD) if you have 128K
access (this much will actually be true even if you do have global
IP addresses), and to NAT (AKA IP masquerade) your internal network.
In that case, make your internal network (the one NATted by the
router) 192.168.0.0, make the router 192.168.0.0 on the inside, and
number from there (your computer could be 192.168.0.2, for example).
How to do all this will depend on the make (and possibly the model)
of router you have, so that takes us back to - you guessed it  :-)  -
check the router docs for more info on that  :-)

Once you get the router otherwise configured, all you need on the Linux box
is a default route pointing at the router (and it's possible you may get
this automatically when eth0 is brought up). This is set using the
route command.  You can view your current routing table by typing 
netstat -nr or just route all by itself (this may not return anything
if there are no currently viable routes, but rather just sit there).
The route manpage is pretty good, and if you have the Linux Network 
Administrator's Guide, there is useful and well-presented information
there as well.
 
Jonathan Byrne                                      Engineering Division
Exodus Communications K.K./Global Online Japan      http://www.gol.com/
Tel:  +81 3-5334-1700   Fax: +81 3-5334-1702        Direct: +81 3-5334-1756

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