Linux Router (LRP) on a Class A LAN

[jkersenbr]

I'm trying to set up a router running Trevor Marshall's (of BYTE magazine fame) rendition of the LRP distribution. I've also tried the Eiger and Materhorn versions of LRP, but couldn't even make them work with my NIC (3c509).

My LAN is a Class A (10.0.0.x). I must be the only person who uses class a, because all the LRP disk images come configured for Class C (192.168.1.x).

I've tried setting the IF0_IPADDR per Marshall's instructions to 10.0.0.x, but it doesn't work. I cannot ping the LRP from my LAN and I cannot ping the LAN from my LRP.

If I leave the IF0_IPADDR unchanged (192.168.1.1) and chage the IP's on my LAN to a Class C netblock, everything works fine.

How can I make the LRP run as 10.0.0.x? I really don't want to have to change the IP's of my entire LAN just to let this router in.

Thanks.
Jeremy

 

[jkersenbr]

Bump.

Any experienced Linux routing gurus care to help?

 

[Damaged]

Yeah, but not with LRP. Sorry. I did do a little looking at the docs and it looks like you're doing it correctly. My only guess would be that it's not getting the correct netmask, which would certainly cause that problem.

I think they give you ifconfig on that disk, after you change the IP what does the output of ifconfig look like?

 

[jkersenbr]

The (assumed) relevant portion of ifconfig after changing the routers IP to 10.0.0.2 is:

----------
inet addr:10.0.0.2 Bcast:10.0.0.254 Mask:255.0.0.0
-----------

I took a flat guess on setting the broadcast address to 10.0.0.254. There are no instructions in any LRP documentation regarding changing it. It defaults to 192.168.1.255, but nothing was operational there either (after changing the IP to 10.0.0.2). So I assumed it needed to be changed to something in the Class A netblock.

Any clues? The rest of my LAN is on the 255.0.0.0 subnet as well as I read somewhere that this is appropriate for Class A's.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Damaged]

Ack! No. With that netmask BCAST has to be 10.255.255.255.

Strange as well from my reading of the docs. It looked like the protocol was classful by nature, so I thought, from reading them, that it would default correctly. Apparently it doesn't. Unless that's what it was and you changed it.

Why wouldn't it work with out the correct broadcast? Well things need that address to work correctly. Like ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) which maps IPs to MAC addresses.

 

[jkersenbr]

Well, perhaps my Bcast was wrong, but it doesn't matter. I changed it to 10.255.255.255 and it still doesn't work.

Interestingly enough, I forgot a detail in my original post. With my router booted up as 10.0.0.2 (with both Bcast address I've tried), I can try to access the Internet from one of the PC's on my LAN and the router dials out. So, evidently, my LAN can indeed communicate with the router at some level. Although pings from the LAN to the router still time out. The router still can't ping the LAN either. It can ping outside addresses on the internet once dialed up, and it can ping names (so dns is working right).

Thanks for the suggestions so far, any more ideas?

For verification, here is the same line from the output of ifconfig now:

-----------
inet addr:10.0.0.2 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask: 255.0.0.0
-----------

 

[Wik]

I used freesco. It was easy to set up.

 

[tim0thy]

i'm wondering why you would need a class A setup for your internal network (guess you are learning networking? )

 

[jkersenbr]

I am new to networking. I've been using a free Proxy server on a Windows95 box for sharing my modem and it's readme said to set it (the server) up as 10.0.0.1.

Since that was the first thing I really wanted to do with my network, I did. I've since outgrown the limited functionality (like no FTP) of that Proxy and abandoned it, but the 10.0.0.x IP's stayed with my network.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd change everything to Class C, but it would be a lot easier if the router could just live in Class A than to change all the IP's on my LAN.

I'm about to try Freesco. If LRP can't do it, maybe Freesco can.

Thanks for all the input and help.

 

[jkersenbr]

Wik -- thanks for the suggestion! I'd never heard of Freesco before, but downloaded it and had a working router in about 20 mintues (and I read all the manual!)

Thanks for your input and help.

 

[jhu]

how many computers do you have? is it that much more difficult to change classes?

 

[jkersenbr]

I only have 3. But one runs linux and is my file/print server which I leave up 24/7. I don't know how to change the IP address of a Linux box off the top of my head, and making the router play with my current network seemed the quickest and easiest solution.

 

[Wik]

Also watch for updates to the Freesco software as they make changes now and then to improve it.

 

[R0b0tN1k]

If you're only using one subnet, you don't need such a broad subnet mask. Use 255.255.255.0 with that and it should work the same.