Censornet newbie, please help

[getafix]

Hi there guys - new kid on the block

 

I am wanting to set up a Censornet box for a housing development that will take place in the near future. So, to be proactive I thought that I would set up a network at home first to get the whole thing working and therefore iron out any problems. I am have problems. I can't seem to get this working. This is my setup.

 

ADSL router is a Netgear DG834GT with 10.0.0.1 as LAN IP

My Censornet box is an AMD 1.7 with 512gb RAM - plenty I think.

I have two 10/100/1000 LAN cards installed.

I have a 8 port hub for my internal network.

My public IP on the censornet box is 10.0.0.2 (subnet 255.0.0.0)

IP on the local LAN is 192.168.0.254 (subnet 255.255.255.0)

 

My config is this:

 

A straight cable from my ADSL router to my public LAN card.

A straight cable from my private LAN card to my hub.

A straight cable from my hub to a local PC.

The local PC has an IP of 192.168.0.3 (static)

 

The censornet box is setup with pretty much default settings. DHCP is off. It is in firewall (non bridged) mode. DNS is my ISP DNS address (same as on my router)

 

What must my gateway address be in the DNS settings?

I can't ping any address from my local PC or from the Censornet box.

I can't access the web admin from my local LAN.

From Censornet box, I can't ping my router (10.0.0.1)

I have tested my cables and they are fine.

 

I read in the manual that the cable from the router to the public card should be a twisted cable. SHouldn't routers be able to auto-switch between straight and twisted cables?

That been said, I still can't ping on the local LAN. (between the local PC and the privated card)

I also have a wireless card on my local PC which I have disabled.

 

Any ideas that I could try.

 

Thanks

Gareth

[ChrisH]

Are you sure your cards have been detected properly by the CN setup? type setup from the command prompt and check.

[getafix]

Hi there Chris

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

As far as I can see they are setup. If I go to install network cards, it says that two cards are already installed. I can also see the ip address allocated to the cards.

 

Cheers

Gareth

[ChrisH]

Make sure you have the cables the right way round try swapping them from the PC.

[getafix]

Hi Chris

 

I have tried that.

 

Which card should be ETH 0 and ETH 1. I think that the card closest to the power supply is the private card - or am I wrong.

 

I have also set up my proxy on the LAN pc to point to the CN box on 192.168.0.254 port 8080. I also added that Ip range to the exceptions list.

 

I am at my wits end. I have read excellent reviews about this product and I am desperate to get it to work.

 

EDIT: What is the default gateway address that I must use under DNS & Gateway settings. The DNS I got from my ISP, but I don't know what gateway I must use.

 

Cheers

Gareth

[ChrisH]

Gateway for the CN should be the ADSL router. PCs gateway should be the CN. DNS for the CN should be your ISPs.

Type ifconfig from the command prompt then unplug a cable, then ifconfig again to see which one is unplugged.

[getafix]

Thanks

 

According to the manual, if I use more ADSL router for NAT, then I both the local and public IP's can be on the same range.

I would then disable NAT on CN.

ie Public on 192.168.0.2, private on 192.168.0.3 and router LAN address of 192.168.0.1.

 

Once again, the manual says that I should use a twisted (cross-over) cable to connect my ADSL router to the public card. Don't these router auto sense. I don't have a twisted cable, so can I connect ADSL router to hub and hub to the public card with straight cables?

 

All the local PC's will be on the same range.

 

Sorry for all the questions, but I know that one little thing can cause this not to work.

[tom_newton]

Yes, most routers will auto-detect.

 

Gateway on your CN box should be your router's address. 10.0.0.1.

Get the censornet box pinging this. That's stage 1. Once you manage that, we can move on to stage 2

 

Try rebooting the router AND the hub - ARP caching can funk things up to a quite nasty degree.

[getafix]

HI Tom

 

Thanks for the reply

 

I am going to reinstall CN from scratch and start over as well as reboot the router and hub.

 

Will keep you posted.

 

Gareth

[getafix]

OK, an update

 

I restarted my hub and router, and reinstalled CN

 

Router IP = 10.0.0.1

Public IP = 10.0.0.2

Private IP = 192.168.0.254

 

I can successfully ping the router, but from about 35 packets, it stops. If I leave the PC, I get a "ETH 1 no RX buffer allocated"

 

What the heck does that mean?

 

I reboot CN, ping again and about 35 pings/packets, it bombs again with the same message.

 

I am using CNET cards with an RTL 8169 chipset. They are both brand new an appear to install correctly at setup.

 

Any further ideas?

 

Thanks

Gareth

[Ric_]

It may be worth considering the purchase of a ADSL-modem that passes your 'real' IP address to the external card of the Censornet box... this certainly helps in the long run!

 

I have an X-Modem M3 (see http://www.adslnation.com/products/xmodem-m3.php ) - this is a really good piece of kit (if a little expensive). It also solved problems with my line dropping out and helped me squeeze a few kbps more out of the line - this helps a lot when all you can get is 512kbps

[OutToLunch]

Both my CN installs happily run with a cheap as chips Linksys router which only gives a NAT'd IP to the external card so that shouldn't be causing you problems...

 

I'd personally ditch the gigabit cards and go back to a tried and tested chipset like the Realtek 8139 or old DLinks for testing... I'm assuming that the gigabit cards are considerably newer than CN 3.3 so may not have the most up to date/stable driver.

 

If you're determined to keep the current cards. Try running 'lspci' and 'lsmod' from the shell and seeing what they're listed as vs what module it's loading for them.

 

Example output:

 

admin@webcache:/usr/local/squid/etc$ lspci

... ...

0000:00:09.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT86C100A [Rhine] (rev 06)

0000:00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)

 

admin@webcache:/usr/local/squid/etc$ lsmod

Module Size Used by

ds 19328 0

yenta_socket 21120 0

pcmcia_core 59264 2 ds,yenta_socket

via_rhine 22024 0

8139too 25472 0

[tom_newton]

Could be the realteks - I hate em - but are you sure that it's not a DHCP issue? sometimes "works for a while2 issues are caused by the issuing or rescinding of a dhcp lease...

[Geoff]

You what? Cheap realtek cards are one of the most reliable NICs under Linux. Due to the nice Taiwanese releasing full specs.

[getafix]

Might well be th NICs.

 

A friend of mine is running CN with the exact same router and is working perfectly.

 

I chose those NICs as I was after the gigabit transfer rate, but if I have to get an older more known card than so be it.

 

I will try and get my hands on two 10/100 cards.

 

What I can't understand then is howcome CN says that the two cards installed fine? As you say, maybe there are instabilities in the driver.

 

Just a thought, the cards came with a Linux driver diskette. Maybe I could try a manual install as apposed to automatic. Think that could help?

 

I also heard that even though you disable DHCP in the setup, CN actually doesn't do it. You have to manually kill the dhcpd to stop it from running.

What is the command from the console to do it?

 

Process of illimination - try different cards.

 

Will keep you posted.

 

Gareth

[OutToLunch]

I chose those NICs as I was after the gigabit transfer rate, but if I have to get an older more known card than so be it.

 

Does the router you're connecting the CN box to support gigabit transfer?

Is your net connection anywhere near fast enough to warrant needing gigabit? If the answer to both questions is No then it's pretty pointless having them in there anyway

 

What I can't understand then is howcome CN says that the two cards installed fine? As you say, maybe there are instabilities in the driver.

 

How many times does Windows tell you something is installed fine only for it to be totally unstable when you actually try and use it? A bad driver is a bad driver regardless of OS.

 

Just a thought, the cards came with a Linux driver diskette. Maybe I could try a manual install as apposed to automatic. Think that could help?

 

I don't think CN will happily let you change or install much outside of what is installed by default but there's no harm in giving it a go if you're testing things out.

 

I also heard that even though you disable DHCP in the setup, CN actually doesn't do it. You have to manually kill the dhcpd to stop it from running.

 

Never heard that before or had any problems at all with DHCP. It's disabled on our Censornet box and the router and enabled on our PDC. Think you're barking up the wrong tree on that one...

[Geoff]

I find vendor provided drivers for Linux to be junk. I wouldn't bother trying to use it.

[getafix]

Does the router you're connecting the CN box to support gigabit transfer?

Is your net connection anywhere near fast enough to warrant needing gigabit? If the answer to both questions is No then it's pretty pointless having them in there anyway

 

Good point. My router probably doesn't, but I plan on running a fibre optic network with gigabit switches so I thought why not get the cards now while testing.

 

Any suggested compatable NICs I could use. I have tried the CN webpage to get compatabilites but have not been able to find any.

 

Seems like the general consensus is that the NICs are the problem. I will try 10/100 3Com or RTL and see how it goes. I am at work now so will only be able to try when I get home.

 

Thanks for the help so far

Gareth

 

Regards

Gareth

[Geoff]

The proxy server we have runs:

0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
0000:04:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)

However we also have the webservers (x2 machines):

0000:04:04.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5780 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)
0000:04:04.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5780 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)

And the print server:

0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 7c)

The primary MX:

0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
0000:04:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)

The Zimbra mail server:

0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [siS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 90)
0000:00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX (rev 20)
0000:00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX (rev 20)

And a random spare box doing nothing:

0000:00:02.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05)

All of these network cards work fine on the Ubuntu Dapper, although some are unconfigured and are inactive so are not put under excessive load.

[OutToLunch]

Good point. My router probably doesn't, but I plan on running a fibre optic network with gigabit switches so I thought why not get the cards now while testing.

 

Any suggested compatable NICs I could use. I have tried the CN webpage to get compatabilites but have not been able to find any.

 

One way or the other, you're going to have a bottleneck for the actual internet access - if you're just sharing a standard DSL connection there's no benefit to be had from trying to go gigabit right up to the router or even the CN box, especially if the router only supports 100mbit cat5 anyway. I'd definitely ditch the newer cards and go for some older ones

 

I can vouch for the old cheap and cheerful realtek 8139 chipset based NICs being happy.

 

Taken from the Censornet forum re a list of compatible cards -

 

Not as such - but if you look in the directory

/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/net

on your CN you should find the information you need.

 

To save you digging, the chipset drivers in that dir are -

 

webcache:/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/net# ls -al

total 1372

drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Jan 16 2006 .

drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 16 2006 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 48475 Jan 16 2006 3c59x.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24484 Jan 16 2006 8139cp.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31233 Jan 16 2006 8139too.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13759 Jan 16 2006 8390.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 251578 Jan 16 2006 acenic.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24911 Jan 16 2006 amd8111e.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26110 Jan 16 2006 b44.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 137861 Jan 16 2006 dgrs.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26997 Jan 16 2006 dl2k.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38492 Jan 16 2006 e100.ko

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 16 2006 e1000

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37739 Jan 16 2006 eepro100.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23655 Jan 16 2006 epic100.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22122 Jan 16 2006 fealnx.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 27505 Jan 16 2006 hamachi.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25775 Jan 16 2006 hp100.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29384 Jan 16 2006 natsemi.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13751 Jan 16 2006 ne2k-pci.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24596 Jan 16 2006 ns83820.ko

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 16 2006 pcmcia

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32415 Jan 16 2006 pcnet32.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21678 Jan 16 2006 r8169.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25441 Jan 16 2006 sis900.ko

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 16 2006 sk98lin

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25823 Jan 16 2006 starfire.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25930 Jan 16 2006 sundance.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34990 Jan 16 2006 sungem.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10685 Jan 16 2006 sungem_phy.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29124 Jan 16 2006 sunhme.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 82102 Jan 16 2006 tg3.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41767 Jan 16 2006 tlan.ko

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 16 2006 tulip

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83176 Jan 16 2006 typhoon.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26051 Jan 16 2006 via-rhine.ko

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22551 Jan 16 2006 yellowfin.ko

 

modinfo followed by a module name will give you the specifics for each module.

 

Edit:

See this thread on the Censornet forum re the 8169 module being very unhappy/unreliable/a PITA.

 

http://forum.censornet.com/viewtopic.php?t=2061

[getafix]

One way or the other, you're going to have a bottleneck for the actual internet access

 

You're quite correct. Suppose there's no harm running gigabit on a local LAN, but pointless for ADSL internet access.

 

I will be getting 2 Realteks's this afternoon to try tonight and I will post my findings tomorrow or possibly later on from home. Fortunaltey reinstalling CN is quick.

 

Thanks for the info on the chipsets, this will make life a little easier.

 

Regards

[HodgeHi]

I had an issue with the DHCP service on a censornet box and still do. It is disabled in the setup but the service is still running when the box is restarted. It has happened a few times. One way of tracking is to see what ip your client has. Mine kept getting the DNS setting from the CN box which was the router IP.

 

I think it was chrisH that told me to run the command /etc/init.d/dhcp stop. I am now in the process of removing this service from startup.

[getafix]

There we go, I knew that there was something to do with DHCP. It might not be significant to my situation, but seeing as though someone earlier brought it up as a possible reason I thought that I should mention it.

 

Thanks for proving that all these late nights trying to get CN up and running hasn't caused me to loose my mind.

 

Cheers

Gareth

[Geoff]

I've already explained how to disable services.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=84179#84179

[getafix]

Thanks Geoff

 

Appreciated

 

Gareth