[tlug] VLAN configuration on Debian

[Charles Muller <acmuller@example.com>]

My university has again sent me for a loop, converting the LAN to a 
VLAN, for which the vendor (Alcatel) has only provided support through 
Windows XP.

My computer at the university is running with dual boot 
Debian-testing/WindowsXP, and following their guidebook I was able to 
get XP connected to the network. The VLAN works with an Alcatel VLANs 
client, running off of Java. In XP, when I try to connect to the 
Internet after a new boot-up, I am first presented with an Alcatel 
Authentication page where I input a userID and password. I am then shown 
an authentication/reconfiguration script that runs like this in the 
browser window (also printed as "javalan.log"):


(In WinXP)

*******************************************
jAvlan 1.0.3-NS
Requirements:
    - DHCP
    - Administrator privileges
*******************************************

10:13:24 > Get properties...
10:13:25 > Your previous IP configuration
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter ãããã ãããæç:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : nprv.tyg.jp
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.184.81
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.254.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.184.1

10:13:30 > Clearing your previous IP configuration...
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter ãããã ãããæç:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

10:13:30 > Setting up your new IP configuration...
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter ãããã ãããæç:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : nprv.tyg.jp
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.125.181
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.125.1

10:13:34 > End of IP reconfiguration.
*******************************************
>>> PLEASE, CLOSE YOUR BROWSER.
*******************************************



However, I really need Linux connected to run the various cron, rsync, 
etc. scripts for maintaining my web site. As usual, when I went to the 
computing center, they just laughed when I mentioned Linux, and went 
back to doing whatever it is they do.

After digging around a bit, I found and downloaded the VLAN package and 
dependencies from the Debian site and installed them. When I tried to 
connect to the Internet via Firefox, the same authentication page showed 
up as when I connected in XP.

After installing the VLAN package in Debian, when I try to connect to 
the Internet, I am presented with the same authentication/login 
interface as in XP. But after plugging in my userID/password, I receive 
an error message:

     Hostname Mismatch: The hostname in the server
     security certificate does not match the name of
     the server.

     Hostname of URL: webview.nw.tyg.jp

     Hostname of certificate: WebView


Unfortunately, before returning home today (I'm writing this from my 
home computer), I neglected to copy the output log from my Linux 
connection attempt. But I remember that it was basically blank, without 
any DNS or IP address information, just "ethnet up/down" etc.

The VLAN package seems not to have a man page, and my googling for such 
strings as "vlan howto" doesn't seem to yield any pertinent information.

Does anyone have any advice on possible strategies for solving this?



As an aside, this situation of the poor treatment I received from my 
"Media Center" people is especially inappropriate. As some of you may 
know, I have a fairly extensive web site containing vast amounts of 
resource materials for people who do research in my field. Because of 
earlier problems with support from my university (in terms of setting up 
the necessary Perl and BSD libraries to support my web applications), I 
bought web hosting space at Pair Networks, and it is there that I 
running all of the sophisticated programming stuff. But because my 
university (supposedly) values the attention they get from the web 
traffic through my materials, I keep a lot of the static and hard-linked 
materials on my university site--even though my personal site has enough 
space to also accommodate these materials. So if I can't solve this 
through the help of fellow linuxers, and the media center people 
continue to blow me off, I'm just going to go to the administration and 
tell them that I'm going to take everything off of the university site 
and shut it down. Expect something will happen then.

But in the meantime, as always, I'd love to figure out how to resolve 
this as another Linux learning experience.


Regards,

Chuck


-------------------

Charles Muller

Toyo Gakuen University
Faculty of Humanities
1-26-3 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo 113-0033 JAPAN
Mobile Phone: 090-9310-1787

Web Site: Resources for East Asian Language and Thought
http://www.acmuller.net

<acmuller[at]jj.em-net.ne.jp>