[ILUG] Network Problems

[Kenn Humborg]

On Mon, Nov 15, 1999 at 09:27:48PM +0000, Tom Mackey wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a home network with one linux box & one win98 box.  Samba is working
> fine as is Apache.  Telnet is taking a minute or two to log in!! and FTP from
> the win box is connecting to the port (21) but gives up after a minute or so!! 
> Telnet and FTP were working perfectly up to yesterday.  In my hurry to learn
> Linux I was messing with the machines all day yesterday (trying to set up IP
> masquarading) so it is probably a case of "pilot error".
> I have rerun ipchains to delete any chains I might have set up, I have looked
> in /var/log/secure, tailed the some message file etc to no avail.
> 
> I know it is a tall order to ask anyone what I might have done (seeing as I
> don't know myself ! )  but could a kind soul point me in some direction?

One or two minute delays are almost always due to name resolution
problems.  You probably haven't set up a DNS server.  (And for your
small network, there's no need yet.)  Make sure that /etc/hosts
and C:\WINDOWS\HOSTS.TXT contain entries for both machines' IP addresses.

That should sort out the delays.

After that you might find some further problems with connections.  Take
a look at /var/log/secure (tail -f /var/log/secure in an xterm or virtual
console is really useful).  If you're getting messages about connections
closed or denied, search the ILUG archives for 'Humborg' and 'tcpwrappers'
for details on how to fix it.

BTW, it's a very good idea to get familiar with the kind of things that
get logged to the files in /var/log so that you are better able to tell
when something is amiss.

Later,
Kenn