[Mageia-discuss] home network using broadband router

[imnotpc]

On 03/08/2012 05:16 PM, e-letter wrote:
> On 08/03/2012, mageia-discuss-request at mageia.org
> <mageia-discuss-request at mageia.org>  wrote:
>> ------------------------------
>> /Message: 5
>> Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:47:23 -0500
>> From: imnotpc<imnotpc at Rock3d.net>
>>
>> @ e-letter - I read your original post and you indicated that you were
>> having trouble setting up nfs using Mandriva/Mageia,  but that you were
>> able to connect to the internet. Correct? Well if you're using dhcp to
>> assign IP addresses, of course it's hard to set up nfs. For persistent
>> connections an nfsv4 client uses an entry in fstab to mount a remote
>> file system at boot. This requires a fixed server name or fixed server
>> IP address, neither of which is provided by a default router dhcp setup.
>> There may be ways to work around this, but why bother? Why not just
>> assign fixed IPs and be done with it? It only takes a few minutes and
>> your nfs connections will always survive reboots.
>>
> Correct, internet connection is always achieved. DHCP is used because
> the ISP does not provide fixed IP address; dynamic IP address is
> acceptable for my basic internet access needs. I do not think I am
> able to assign fixed IP addresses.

I am obviously not familiar with the ISP or hardware you are using, but 
every dsl router/cable modem/switch that I've ever seen has 2-3 
interfaces. One interface that connects to the ISP (they often call this 
the WAN), one to the LAN (your local network), and optionally one to a 
wireless network. If your computer has a 192.168.x.x address then that 
was assigned by the router in your basement, not the ISP.

For the connection to the ISP, your router is a dhcp *client* (unless 
you pay for a static IP). You should never mess with that interface or 
you will spend many hours in customer service hell trying to repair your 
connection.

For your LAN interface (and wireless interface if you have it) your 
router is a dhcp *server* and your computers are the dhcp clients. These 
interfaces are configurable by the end user (you) and can be changed to 
*not* be a dhcp server, but to be a fixed IP gateway. You should also be 
able to leave dhcp enabled and still assign fixed IP addresses to 
certain hardware, but this depends on the router. In any case the ISP 
router/modem/switch forwards the traffic from this connection through 
the WAN interface to the ISP servers and the rest of the internet.

If you want to change the LAN settings on your router, you can usually 
do this through an http connection on modern hardware. You should 
connect to the router from a wired connection. Some hardware also allows 
wireless connections to the administrative interface but this incredibly 
insecure since anyone within range can re-program your network using the 
default username/password combinition. Anyway, you usually use a web 
browser and go to something like "http://www.routerlogin.net". The exact 
site name, username, and password is often printed somewhere on the 
router, or you can get your model number and do a search on the internet 
for the manual which usually has this info.

It's just a network interface and it's not really any different from 
configuring your PC interface. If you want to go this route I can offer 
some advice, but you really need a copy of the manual on your desktop 
before you start messing with this stuff. Especially since you've never 
done it before.

Jeff