Make Your Own Router - secrets revealed

[Stitch_n_Time]

ok ipcop detected my linksys card that was already installed but still won't pick up the other card (realtek). :::sigh::: But I got closer this time. I guess I could go down and get another card like the one I had (i think it was a tulip chipset). Any ideas? anybody? This is what I get for buying cheap cards, huh? lol

[silver]

I generally buy the cheapest cards I can find (realtek normally) never had a prob with icpop not seeing them so dunno

good luck!

Sil

[Memfis]

realtek are the cheapest network cards that is supported by default most OS I have used.

Only NT / 95 I *may* have had to install drivers.

OS drivers will do fine for
Debian (Including netinstaller)
98,98SE,2000,XP,2003 serv

They are the most common card used in most of my PC's / servers and are the easiest to find drivers on the net (they're everywhere!)

[Stitch_n_Time]

Memfis- thanx for the post. How would I go about installing the driver from the driver disk into the ipcop machine?

Now for a stupid question... how do you tell the green card from the red card when hooking everything up. I've switched the cables back and forth and I'm still not able to get the ipcop homepage. nothing gets out of the computer on the green network. Meaning ping requests time out. Lights flicker on the net card when connected to the cable modem. the one connected to the hub (green) lights come on and pretty much stay steady. I've restarted the modem and both computers trying to get everything to see each other. I also made sure that the green computer is set to obtain an IP address automatically. I'm sure I've missed something really simple. Thanx.

[Memfis]

Memfis- thanx for the post. How would I go about installing the driver from the driver disk into the ipcop machine?

Originally Posted by Stitch_n_Time

you dont.
Use a compatible network card. you're really getting into nitty gritty installing your own linux drivers. do NOT attempt to use the ADSL USB modem driver page to upload these drivers.

Now for a stupid question... how do you tell the green card from the red card when hooking everything up. I've switched the cables back and forth and I'm still not able to get the ipcop homepage. .....etc......

Originally Posted by Stitch_n_Time

This had me plagued for ages Easiest for me was to use a laptop in the following mannor :
assuming you've setup ipcop with 3 recognised and configured network cards using the monitor. IP examples are probably not the best examples :
dhcp 10.0.1.x (255.255.0.0)
green 10.0.0.1 (255.255.0.0)
orange 192.168.31.1 (255.255.0.0)
stuff on orange 192.168.31.x (255.255.0.0) {this is not DHCP!!!}
red 172.16.1.2
dsl router 172.16.1.1

remember to set your dsl router IP / mask first!!!!
Then port forward every protocol possible (some do more than others) from 0 to the highest possible towards the ipcop RED IP (172.16.1.2 in example)

Using a cross over network cable or two passthru cables and a hub/switch

Step 1) locate green
set pc to dhcp.
connect cable to IPcop1
'ipconfig /renew'
if success you found green. should be able to ping ipcop green and red IP's

once found green. connect to the web interface. click connect on main page.
then peridocically monitor 'ARP Table Entries' in network status.

Step 2) locate orange
more fun, manually set an ip within range and default gateway (and mask...) on pc / laptop.
plug in. leave for a few moments
ping orange ip and red ip's.

Process of ilimination should mean last one is red. however to test
Step3) Red
set ip / mask on pc to the same as the RED IP except +1 on the IP. )keep the mask the same)

Rember RED IP and Router IP should be very similar. The masks should be the same. NAT must be turned on.
for green and red users to ping an internet ip IPCop must say connected AND the router should say connected.
You *should* be able to get to router web admin from any green PC (and possibly orange??? :/ )

Note, The examples above aren't great. Perhaps sil would be good enough to recommend some on his original post? I do NO use the ip's above. I do however cheat with the setup.

cheat : purchase one card (thats still supported by ipcop) thats different from all the others. Assign it green. makes for an easy start when testing

[silver]

like mem says, if green is set to have a dhcp server running then setup a dhcp client connect it to each in turn and if it's windows box do

ipconfig /renew

in dos window

personally I setup the green network to be static and have the task of picking green from orange,. you should be able to ping the local ip of the ipcop providing you have a proper ip (valid for the green network) and ping the ipcop boxes IP

if you login to the box locally (i.e. on console) and do

ifconfig -a

a few times while pinging you should see the bytes received increase on the connected interface.,

Sil

[Stitch_n_Time]

Hey guys.
I finally got it working. I kept swapping the cables from the red to green trying to figure out which one was which, but it wasn't working. Then out of frustration with it, I did a ipconfig /release_all and then a /renew_all. And then the ethernet config info popped up with an IP in the correct range. pinged the ipcop box with success and then hit it with the browser. Then I was unable to get connected to the internet. So, after some reading in the linux bible looking for some way to force an ip lease, I just rebooted the cable modem (powered down and uplugged it. I read somewhere that sometimes that forces an IP renewal.) and then rebooted the ipcop box hoping it would shoot out there asking for an IP and apparantly it did. I suspect that powering down the cable modem wasn't entirely necessary. But I was wanting to put down as much info as possible in case anyone else has the same troubles as I did. Oh, and I never did get the Realtek nic's to work. I had already had Linksys card installed and then went down to the store and bought another one. Thanks for everyone's help. I hope that maybe I can offer some help or advice of my own. Keep pluggin' away at it!

[Scoobs]

IPCop Support forum is on a new domain http://www.ipcops.com/ it used to be on the .net but hes had problems.

[N30 G30]

hi sil,
i just came across this forum while browsing; i like the fact that u'r encouraging people to configure their own router rather than rely on a corporation to tell them everythings fine.
i personally use SMOOTHWALL EXPRESS http://www.smoothwall.org
much the same idea as IPCOP (little bit of nepetism, i'm related to neuro from the smoothwall team) but i found it very easy to configure and i love the fact that you can map external ports to internal physical (mac) addresses rather than ip addresses, which, if you use dhcp, change when the lease expires.
for people using p2p, whatever u'r client, if you look in preferences or settings under connection, u can check what ports it wants to use, then forward them to the relevant machine; for instance, i use amule, so i forward port 4662tcp and 4672udp to my p2p box. The only problem i had was that smoothwall doesn't support the crappy speedtouch 330 modem i got from onetel until you apply the fix updates. thats very easily done through the web config page though, and once done its easy enough to configure the modem. smoothwall manuals are available online and u can d/l the image with or without the manuals, with them is about 30Mb. i also found a number of very helpful forums dedicated to smoothwall, maybe a better option for the novice?
right this was supposed to be just a quick mention for smoothie and 'job well done' to sil so peace out

neo geo

[Memfis]

I suspect that powering down the cable modem wasn't entirely necessary.

Probably not, but it never hurts to reboot 'the chain'. Just as long as you reboot inet side first then work inwards should keep things smooth.

My first time with IPCop I gave up because I couldn't find the green nic Now I luckily have a different type that I can use for green so it's easy to spot

N30 G30, Thanks for the feedback. I'm sure Silver and the rest of the IPCop loving team appreciate it

[silver]

yo @ neo geo

Each to their own,. smoothwall and ipcop do similar things and peeps should make up their own minds, with either choice there's a lot to recommend over a purchased router,.

my preferance is ipcop but then I haven't tried smoothwall and those I know who've tried it like it so who knows

Sil

[StuC]

I prefer IP-Cop due to the mud slinging that seemed to be around smoothwall some time back.
I am forced to use Smoothwall at home as for some reason I am obviously too stupid to understand 1.4- 1.4.2 IP-Cop does not dial up to Plusnet properly.
1.3 and SME server have no problems.

There are a few things I like about Smoothy like being able to put a note on static IP mappings.

Is it just me or is the current layout of tabs on IPCop 1.4 less intuitive than before, I keep forgetting where stuff is. (old age)

[Memfis]

yup was mud slinging that put me off them too.

IPCop used to be quite a way behind them, but seam to be catching up.
Only thing IPCop didn't have at the time was a decent QOS manager / being able to rate limit certain IP's.

Think it still doesn't, but it's no longer an issue to me

[Scoobs]

Just incase you hadnt seen the update page on ipcop theres 2 updates out taking it to version 1.4.4

1.4.3
Upgrade to squid-2.5.STABLE9, kernel-2.4.29 (part1), dhcp-3.0.2, dnsmasq-2.20, libpng-1.2.8,bewan st v0.9.0 eagle-usb-2.1.1(EagleIII support), fresh eciadsl-nortek-0.10, zlib-1.2.2. Fix for tar (dot_dot issue). Bug fixes to VPN page. Better perl scripts speed. Enhance controls on GUI Settings page. Minor cosmetic changes to GUI. You need more than 24 MB free on / to be able to apply both 1.4.3 and 1.4.4 updates.Apply both 1.4.3 and 1.4.4 updates and reboot

1.4.4
Upgrade to kernel 2.4.29 (part 2): fix many local security vulnerabilities. D-link GSE-528T support as a R8169 clone. Apply both 1.4.3 and 1.4.4 updates and reboot.

[drusman]

hello forum

great job sil i just joined the forum a few days ago and i m really convinced to make my ipcop.

Sil i have some question if u or anyone can answer it so that i can confidently buy parts for my ipcop. I am in china and currently running a network of about 25PCs using internet and file sharing. and i am using two ADSL 768K PPPOE conections for this purpose. all my network internet is controlled by two routers of TP-link , its a chinese brand. its working well but some times when there are all users using net the routers seem to be slow down as well as some time i see the collision between routers when i plug off one for a few second and plug it again up then everything goes well. I still cant understand why it happens. but this problem doesnt appear frequently may be one time a week or in two week time.

So can I use both my ADSL conections on ipcop by using two red cards(2 WANs.Alcatel ethernet modems). so that i can control it from one end also get rid of this collision problem and will it effect on the speed of internet to users?

one more thing i want to tell u that my network is not like a netcafe in big hall, actually i am student of medical graduation and i am very much intrested in this networking stuff so i made a network in my hostel with all the friends and fellows computers. now we can share files and movies also using internet.

so in hostel the network is like i put one hub/switch (8port) one one side and PCs are conected with that and then on uplink to next hub/switch and finally to router and then same on the other side of the hostel like that, i think it might be complicated to understand. anyhow i am using about 13 hub/switchs in my network. which are conected serially. becasue of limitation of space.

I hope i tryed my best to explain my situation, and please tell me how can i help my problems. or if u need some more details, then dont hesitate to ask me,one more think,

thanks . waiting for helpful reply

[silver]

ah - sorry to say it's not currently possible, at least not in a standard ipcop,.

what you are wanting to do is actually pretty complex, I know ppl have got ipcop working with 2 'red' or internet connections so it's possible to do - but might not be simple..

there's some specialised hardware that can do magic stuff but it almost totally depends on what scenario you are trying to achieve,..

if I can ask some questions,.,

on your current setup, how does a PC making an outbound tcp request (e.g. loading a webpage) choose or get assigned an outbound connection (i.e. which ADSL connection does it go down)

really we are getting into load balancing type stuff, perhaps try the ipcop dev mailing list archive or post a question there..

some links

http://forums.techwatch.com.au/viewt...?t=3626&sid=22 - perhaps take a look @ the link abt smoothwall in the list

and some on balancing on TS!
http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t9718.html
http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t6507.html
http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t7306.html

I might split this thread out so it doesn't get lost

Sil

[ghuzz]

hi Sil, back again after a year.

I first posted here at post 82. Anyway, I now have a new base unit with cable modem by NTL, initially I was connected through a USB, but got the nic card connected. I have an old compaq and I have installed Ipcop on it with 2 nic cards one for Green and one for Red, is this right? I am connecting the pc to ipcop using a cat5e crossover and I am using a through cable to connect the modem to IPcop?

Everything appears fine but I can't get an IP address it keeps going to 169.154 which cableforum says is a fault, but even if I renew and release it keeps going to 169.254. Do I as you said in another post have to register the Red nic card with NTl, and how do I do this?

Another minor problem is that I can't log in when ipcop reboots, it asks for a password which I give as root and it says it's incorrect although I know it is correct lol!!

cheers ghuzz

[silver]

yep - the NIC may well need to be registered,. to be honest I installed the ntl disk on a windows box with the nic and then moved the nic card into ipcop (umm there's a more simple way) some notes @ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.../register.html

root login - how are you accessing,. there's 2 logins - one is root / root_password for the ssh / command prompt (when sat at box) the other login is the web login - this is the admin / admin_password -

both passwords could be different (depends what you used)

Sil

PS, welcome back

[ghuzz]

for the root, I'm accessing at the ipcop box, with the monitor hooked up, I think, when I installed it just asked for either a password or a username but not both, because whenever I input anything i get incorrct password. I saw at another forum this is probably ht eproblem.

nic cards, so, do you suggest I take the nic card out of the Xp box and swap it over with the ipcop one, or vice versa?

thx again ghuzz

[silver]

ok - the login at the box - password will be root and the root password

or you could use setup (as username) and the setup password (I think)

nic - whichever,. so long as the nic card you use with the ntl disk is the same that ends up in the ipcop box - one option would be to stick windows onto the ipcop box while you do the ntl setup - then re-install ipcop ?

Sil

[ghuzz]

Hi Sil, hit a few problems. Firstly, the Lan is onboard with my xp box. So, I hooked up another Nic card to the xp box to register it, but it won't pick up an IP address apart from the 169.254 which is a no-no. I tried all the suggestions from the cable forum, but I get an error from Kerio firewall which reads;

Kerio personal firewall driver: Mac Transfer Data: Invalid buffer tag.

I think this means that the nic card is not registering and not picking up a proper IP from DHCP?

any ideas, thx for your help so far!

[silver]

umm, is it possible to install a copy on windows onto the ipcop box and do it that way, most any version of windows should be ok

not sure if you know, when you first connect the nic to the cable box you need to unplug the ethernet,. boot the cable box (switch off and on) wait a little, plug in the ethernet - then as the cable box boots reboot the windows box - or something (similar is needed for ipcop the first time)

the other thing, I think a normal straight-through ethernet may be used (required) not sure..

Sil

[ghuzz]

yes, I could install W2k, but I wouldn't be able to connect to the internet through NTL as it says using their disc that this compaq box is only a Pentuim 1 133mhz and cable needs min 166. Or, would just installing W2k do the job?

Perhaps I could do this?

I have 2 nic cards in the compaq box, a new one, Realtek and an old PCMia something or other which came with it, this box originally had Win 95 on it. However, when ipcop is probing it always finds the PCM card first and assigns it as green, and the realtek gets assigned as Red. I guess I could choose to assign the Realtek to the green and have the PCM one as the red, as this was used alrady in a BT office!?

cheers ghuzz

[silver]

I'd try win2k on the ipcop box,. if the disk gives you issues then call ntl - at least they should offer support since you have gone to windows

Sil

[ghuzz]

ok, some progress, but now the NTL problem. I have managed to register the nic card in the xpbox and put it into the red zone, but now when I try and connect I get the same 169.254. I have followed the advice at the NTL forum.

In my case it was the Kerio firewall which was stopping the 2nd nic from being registered but I uninstalled Kerio and the nic card registered no problen with a new IP address. Now, when I try connection with the nic in the ipcop box and using a crossover cable between the ipcop box and the xp box it isn't renewing an IP address?

I have set the red zone to get an IP address from DHCP but have not inputed any info as NTL changes IP and DHCP, only the DNS servers remain the same.

Any ideas, what I can do? I have a stand alone modem.

this is from the cableforum. i've posted there but no one has got back to me or looks like responding!

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...?t=7603&page=2

All Stand Alone Cable Modems (SACM) need to bind themselves to the new Ethernet connection by having a full reboot of the modem by powering down and then connecting the ethernet cable and powering back up the modem. This associates the modem with the Ethernet card (NIC). This process has to be repeated any time the connection is changed either to or from USB or simply from one NIC to another.

One option if you are stuck on the default Windows 169.xx.xx.xx address when trying to use ethernet for a SACM after having done the above is to do a full initialising of the modem by then disconnecting the modem from everything. (i.e. also disconnect from the main NTL cable once the power is off) Then power the modem back up with the cable still disconnected.

Then power down the modem again and reconnect the main NTL cable and let the modem settle down and get its correct IP from NTL and at this point do a full reboot on the PC itself leaving the modem switched on so that it retains the connection. Windows should then see the correct connection on the modem after the reboot and not assign the default 169.xx.xx.xx address which actually indicates a failure to detect a "live" connection.

With some SACM models there is also an extra option to do an internal reset of modem by making use of a pinhole which will be seen on the back of the modem close to the RJ45 socket (In those models with that feature). This procedure is done with the modem still connected to the main power not during a reboot btw.

One of the above, or a combination of both, should get the modem giving a true IP to Windows and restoring a working connection via the ethernet card in most cases where a SACM is being used.

In the case of Set Top Boxes the procedure is somewhat different as any new NIC has to have its MAC address registered on the NTL network. I don't have the details to hand for that full process but I am sure somebody will add this detail in due course.

As with the original advice, these extra things to try are best done with any firewall turned off as this could interfere with the process but don't forget to reset the firewall once the new connection is working correctly.

Hope this helps.

[silver]

I think windows is prolly confused with 2 nics,. try disabling the onboard lan card?

make sure you have any kind of dhcp server within your network (e.g. on the windows box itself) turned off,.

then it should jus be a matter of rebooting the cable modem (or set top box) and reboot the windows box and it should work - perhaps!

did you follow the install CD you got with NTL - that should set stuff up and register the nic etc w/o too much trouble ?

Sil

[ghuzz]

cheers Sil, I'll try some of that tomorrow. i have started a new thread at the NTL forum, so hopefully they might come up with something. I have a stand alone cable modem, which aappears to be less problematic in registering new connections? I have switched to the other nic in the xpbox, somehow the LAN one is coming up disconnected so have alrady disabled it.

I didn't use the NTL cd as it's not meant for ethernet, it kept timing out saying couldn't renew IP address, found this out at the NTL forum.

I tried their suggestion of net stop/start dhcp but it keeps reverting to 169.254.

Anyway, i'll try your suggestion tomorrow and whatever they can come up with and see what happens, aint giving up yet, it's an NTL issue as far as I can tell, even their site has stickys about registering a new nic card!

[ghuzz]

well, still can't get it up and running! tried everything possible and all the suggestions from the cableforum, it still hangs at 169.254 which means XP is looking up itself for a IP address!

Maybe a clean install will rectify it, but I bought a cable router with a firewall in the meantime, I can't be bothered at this time doing another clean install and have to re-install everything!

I'll try and see if it will work with Linux Mandrake?

Anyway, thx for your help Sil!

ghuzz

[tujags]

Help!
I seem to have a problem I can't resolve, my connection is very slow & gets slower check in the Red Log has repeated message"ppoa3 (2139)CRC error in AAL5 frame" any ideas1? I think it is a line error somewhere noise, checksum, or something but not sure how to fix it!

[Scoobs]

Are you running 1.4.6 ?

Speedtouch 330 modem ?

User or kernal mode ?

Few things to try/check are you using the correct driver for the modem rev 2 or rev 4

If you are have you tryed using user mode or kernal mode on the dial up setting for the speedtouch 330 ?