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Re: How to configure /etc/network/interfaces WAS: how to connect two PC's with a cross-over ethernet cable?

Bram Mertens wrote:

On Sun, 2004-08-22 at 18:36, John Floren wrote:
[...]


Could I use something like this?
--- /etc/network/interfaces ---
auto lo eth0

iface lo inet loopback

iface lan inet static
       address 192.168.0.123
       netmask 255.255.255.0
iface wan inet dhcp 
--- EOF ---
No. Where is eth0? You have it as an automatic interface, but there is no entry for it. Change "lan" to "eth0". I don't know about your "iface wan", but I'm not sure that would work either. Unless I am greatly mistaken, arguments for iface must be actual interface names. 


Let me quote a bit more of the Debian reference where I found this:
<quote>
However, suppose your computer is a laptop that you transport between
home and work. When you connect the computer to the corporate network or
to your home LAN you need to configure eth0 accordingly. 
First define two logical interfaces home and work (instead of eth0 as we
did earlier) which describe how the interface should be configured for
the home network and the work network, respectively. 
     iface home inet static
             address 192.168.0.123
             netmask 255.255.255.0
             gateway 192.168.0.1
iface work inet static 
             address 81.201.3.123
             netmask 255.255.0.0
             gateway 81.201.1.1
Then physical interface eth0 can be brought up for the home network with
the appropriate configuration by specifying it on the command line: 
     # ifup eth0=home
To reconfigure eth0 for the work network issue the commands: 
     # ifdown eth0
     # ifup eth0=work

Note that with the interfaces file written as above it will no longer be
possible to bring up eth0 by doing ifup eth0 alone. The reason is that
ifup uses the physical interface name as the default logical interface
name and now in our example no eth0 logical interface is defined.
</quote>

I simply replaced 'work' and 'home' by 'wan' and 'lan' respectively,
assuming the actual name wouldn't make a difference.
[...]
Heh. Thanks for clarifying. I never have had to do that (I don't have a laptop) and as such never learned that. Cool. 


One thing that concerns me about the above is the impact this will have
on the pppd configuration.  I still haven't found out whether 'pon'
needs the 'iface eth0 inet dhcp' line that is in /etc/network/interfaces
on my system at the moment.
What does "pon" (a command to start a DIALUP connection) have to do with the eth0 configuration, an ETHERNET connection? 


Perhaps nothing, that's one of the things I'm trying to find out. (I
apologise if I wasn't clear enough on that)

If pon doesn't look at /etc/network/interfaces can't I just edit my
/etc/network/interfaces to:
--- start ---
auto lo eth0

iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet static
        192.168.3.1
        255.255.255.0
--- EOF ---

and use pon to activate the DSL (dialup) connection when the laptop is
connected to the modem and ifup eth0 when the laptop is connected to the
desktop (with the crossover cable)?

TIA
I have never used DSL, but I know regular dialup doesn't use /etc/network/interfaces, it has its configuration in /etc/ppp. 
Good Luck!

Digi
--
http://nuwen.net/~digi/cluster
Anybody with money to burn will easily find someone to tend the fire.
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