Very Computer

Peoria, IL).  He also got a new computer, so I'm trying to help him
set up his old PC as an OpenBSD 3.1 firewall/gateway.

I'm having some strange problems with his network configuration that I
can't seem to figure out.  I instructed OpenBSD to use DHCP on the
ethernet card that is connected to the cablemodem.

On boot, I get an IP address assigned, but it's not the same one that
his Windows box gets assigned.  In fact, it's not even close.  When
OpenBSD boots, it gets an IP address of 10.14.something.something,
while the Windows box would get 12.something.something.something.  In
fact, my friend also had one of those hardware routers, which likewise
got an IP address of 12.x.x.x.

Now the strange thing is that with this (apparently bogus) IP address,
whenever I do an nslookup on any symbolic hostname, it always returns
12.x.x.x as the IP address.  But at the same time it appends some junk
domain information to the hostname that I queried.  I'm not at his
computer now, but here's a forged example of what nslookup would
return if I were at his box:

Quote:> nslookup mtco.com

Server:  dns-something.something.insightbb.com
Address:  (whatever the IP is of insightbb.com's DNS server)

Name:    mtco.com.something.something.insightbb.com
Address:  12.xxx.xxx.xxx

Now if I were to do a dnslookup on an actual numerical IP address, I
get a "Non-existent host/domain".

So clearly there is something messed up with the hostname/dns
configuration, but I'm not sure what that is.

I read a thread a while back about OBSD possibly needing the TTL fix
in dhclient (upping it from 16 to 128).  I applied this patch to the
dhcp package, and installed it, and it didn't have any effect.

I also tried turning the cablemodem off for about 10 minutes, then
restarting OBSD.

cablemodem, I had a permanent symbolic hostname (something like
c123456-a.x.x.home.com), but a dynamic IP.  So when OBSD invoked DHCP,

computer doesn't have anything like this, so I'm not sure if there's
something special I need to have dhclient send to the DHCP server.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?  Any ideas?

Thanks!
Matt

--

The given email address is invalid.  Replace the string
"bogus" with "net" to obtain my correct email address.
Down with spam!

Some cable providers will not issue an IP via DHCP without having the MAC
address of the NIC in their database.  AT&T does this.  If your friend's
cable provider does the same, they would have the MAC address of the NIC in
the Windows box, assuming that's the machine they set up the cable modem
for, but not the gateway/firewall machine (unless your friend has called
them and told them about the NIC in the gateway machine).  If this is the
case, your friend should call the provider and ask them to provision another
NIC.  They'll usually do this in situations where a customer has a desktop
computer and a laptop that they may want to periodically connect to the
cable modem.

In any case, a 10.x.x.x IP is not routable, so I would be very suspicious.
Look in /var/db/dhclient.leases and find out the IP of the DHCP server.  You
will probably find that it is some other client machine poorly/wrongly
configured, and not the same machine that issues a valid IP for the Windows
machine.

HTH,

Quote:> them and told them about the NIC in the gateway machine).  If this is the
> case, your friend should call the provider and ask them to provision
another
> NIC.  They'll usually do this in situations where a customer has a desktop
> computer and a laptop that they may want to periodically connect to the
> cable modem.

Why not just switch the two NICs from computer?