Basic newbie networking doubt

[zhopudey]

Hope this is the correct section for this query.

I am going to try out unraid with the free 3 disk version, but I don't have a router. So can I connect the unraid box directly to my windows PC using a patch or a cross cable? What settings will I need to enter in the network adapter?

[zhopudey]

Hello Can someone help me out please?

[Joe L.]

Do you have any networking at all on your PC?  (Any LAN connection currently?)

 

Yes, you can use just a patch cable  (if both PC and unRAID LAN are Gigabit) or a crossover cable (if either are not Gigabit)

 

You will need to either set up a DHCP server on your PC, or use fixed IP addresses on both your PC and the unRAID server.

 

To know the correct IP address to assign, I need to know the answer to the first question I asked.  Without a router, with its DHCP server, both the PC and the unRAID server must have hard-coded tcp/ip addresses.

 

If you open up a DOS command window on your PC, and type

ipconfig

what do you see as its output?

 

What OS are you using on the PC?

 

Routers are not expensive... here is one example: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=AR430W&cat=NET

 

Joe L.

[zhopudey]

Thanks for the reply

 

I'm currently using Windows 7. I'll use the motherboard gigabit ports on my windows PC and the unraid server. What ip address do I need to enter? Something like 10.10.1.0 for the PC and 10.10.1.1 for the unraid server? Do I need to enter subnet/gateway etc? I can do all this on the windows PC, but how do I do it for the unraid box? Do I enter the settings in the cfg file on the pen drive?

[zhopudey]

Found this info in a thread -

 

Yep.  lungnut- what is your network config?  If you don't use a DHCP server then you'll have to set an IP address manually.  This is fairly simple to do.  What you need to do is edit the file 'network.cfg' in the 'config' folder on the flash.  This can be done either directly via the console using the vi editor (in this case the file path is /boot/config/network.cfg).  Or you can plug the flash into your PC and edit the file on your PC.

 

The default contents of the file are:

 

USE_DHCP=yes

IPADDR=

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

 

You want to change to:

 

USE_DHCP=no

IPADDR=<desired IP address, eg., 192.168.1.10>

NETMASK=255.255.255.0 <change if you need to>

GATEWAY=<your gateway ip address>

 

The NETMASK and GATEWAY address can be found by looking at the network settings for you Mac.

 

Will try this out. Hope it works

[Joe L.]

Thanks for the reply

 

I'm currently using Windows 7. I'll use the motherboard gigabit ports on my windows PC and the unraid server. What ip address do I need to enter? Something like 10.10.1.0 for the PC and 10.10.1.1 for the unraid server?

I'd use something like that.  But to make it easier if you do add a router later, I'd not use 10.10.1.0, and 10.10.1.1, but instead 10.10.1.100 and 10.10.1.101.  That way, the normal default address the router assigns will not conflict.

Do I need to enter subnet/gateway etc?

I really don't know that answer... normally it is the address of the router.

I can do all this on the windows PC, but how do I do it for the unraid box? Do I enter the settings in the cfg file on the pen drive?

Exactly... edit the config/network.cfg file.

 

 

[zhopudey]

Thanks. Will try this and report back.

[zhopudey]

Tried with just ip and subnet, kept the gateway blank. Didn't work I'll connect a keyboard to the unraid machine and do some more troubleshooting today.

[zhopudey]

No luck yet. I'll post all the details -

 

My main PC has an asus m3a78-em board. I'm using an intel 865g board for the unraid box. I connected both the gig-e ports with a straight cable, and gave addresses 10.10.1.100 and 10.10.1.101, and subnet 255.0.0.0. I'm using win 7 on my main machine, and it says something like "Unknown network", and cannot connect to \\tower

 

I'll try with a cross cable tonight.

[Chris Pollard]

Have you tried connecting to the IP address?  http://10.10.1.100

 

 

[zhopudey]

Have you tried connecting to the IP address?  http://10.10.1.100

 

 

 

I'll try this as well.

 

BTW, if I use a switch, would I need cross cables or straight cables?

[Joe L.]

Have you tried connecting to the IP address?  http://10.10.1.100

 

 

 

I'll try this as well.

 

BTW, if I use a switch, would I need cross cables or straight cables?

If you use a switch or router you should use straight cables... (although with Gigabyte connections at both ends, I'm told they figure it out regardless of the cable you use)

[zhopudey]

Tried with a switch and 2 straight cables; didn't work. I think I'm getting some basic step wrong here. 

Tonight, I'll use an ubuntu live cd on the unraid box and check if the networking works.

 

[Joe L.]

Tried with a switch and 2 straight cables; didn't work. I think I'm getting some basic step wrong here. 

Tonight, I'll use an ubuntu live cd on the unraid box and check if the networking works.

 

What model "switch" did you use?

 

 

[zhopudey]

Its a basic DLink 8-port 10/100 switch.

[zhopudey]

I tried with a ubuntu live CD, and connected with a straight cable. Set the ubuntu box to 10.10.1.201 / 255.255.255.0, and the windows box to 10.10.1.202 / 255.255.255.0. I could ping the windows box from ubuntu, but not the other way round.

Then I removed  the live CD and booted into unRaid, and came back to square one Pinging in any direction failed with the message "Destination Host Unreachable".

[zhopudey]

OK, I got a cross cable; will try it out tonight. Wish me luck

[zhopudey]

Didn't work with the crosscable Now i'm installing win7 on the unraid box. Will get networking working first.

 

Edit: Ok, installed win7 on the unraid box. Now if I set both machines to set network settings automatically, they can see each other in the network. But when I set the ip addresses manually, I can't see or ping one PC from the other.  So I'm thinking this is basically a problem with how win7 handles networking. What do I do now?

I certainly want to keep win7 on my main PC, so I think think buying a router and trying with dhcp is the only option left.

[lionelhutz]

I'm just guessing but maybe set the gateway to the same address as one of the computers instead of using xxx.xxx.xxx.1

 

These computers will not be connected to anything else or to the internet? If they will be connected to the internet then just get a router. It's the easiest way.

 

Peter

 

[NAS]

Buy a router.

 

Operating correctly default gateway shouldnt matter since they are on the same subnet. Not operating correctly set the gateway as the IP of the machine you are trying to contacy and vice versa.

 

But buy a router, or get one from the dump, it doesnt matter what the WAN port is (ADSL/cable/anything else) the cheapest nastiest router with a few LAN ports will make this a 2 minute job MAX

[zhopudey]

I guess I will have to shell out for a router. But gigabit routers don't come cheap

[NAS]

A much cheaper way to do it is to get a cheap cheap cheap router and a cheap gigabit switch.

[zhopudey]

Not operating correctly set the gateway as the IP of the machine you are trying to contacy and vice versa.

 

I'll try this out as well...

[Joe L.]

A much cheaper way to do it is to get a cheap cheap cheap router and a cheap gigabit switch.

Exactly what I have...  my 8-port Gigabit switch was on sale for $29.  Wireless router was about the same cost when I picked it up on sale.

[zhopudey]

Not operating correctly set the gateway as the IP of the machine you are trying to contacy and vice versa.

 

I'll try this out as well...

 

 

Didn't work. Getting "destination host unreachable" when pinging from unraid, and "Request timed out" when pinging from windows.