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Regulus, the server, has a fixed IP. It has to have so that my name server knows where to find it. In addition to that, I also pay RR for two dynamic IPs, which are used by Antares (the desktop) and Spica (the new laptop). Those generally don't change but they can; Canopus (the old laptop) used to have a 204. IP, but somehow Spica has come up with a 24. one, which is the same bank as Antares has had for a long time. One suggestion people have had is that I get an ethernet hub with DHCP built in, so that everything used a local address (i.e. 192.168). That would work for communications between Antares and Spica, but I already get fast communication between them using NetBEUI. I don't really need anything except disk cross-mounting and printer-sharing, and NetBEUI supports those both. Such a hub wouldn't solve the problem of access to Regulus, because Regulus has to stay with its fixed IP because that's what my name-server is telling all of you when you access "denbeste.nu". Which means that any attempt to access Regulus would still route out and back because of how RR's cable modems are designed. There's actually a different solution available to me, but I'm a little afraid of it. Regulus (a Cobalt Qube 3) actually has two ethernet interfaces. Among its many diverse capabilities, it can act as a gateway. It can implement DHCP and serve as a firewall for the LAN behind it. What I could do is to plug Regulus directly into the cable modem, and plug my hub into the other port on Regulus and let it be my DHCP host. In that case, all communications here on the LAN would be behind Regulus, and traffic to Regulus would not have to pass through the cable modem. But I'm a little afraid of that because it might bring the web site down if I screw up. Also, it would mean that all my other traffic would route through Regulus, and I'm not so sure what that would do to the poor baby 300 MHz K6-2 powering the thing. (Maybe I'm borrowing trouble; it is, actually, not that bad a CPU. It just seems underpowered compared to my other computers.) Earlier, I was also worried about its reliability, though now that I've had it for several months I'm not any longer. (Cobalt's statistics gathering software gets wedged every once in a while and I have to reboot Regulus to straighten it out. But Apache just runs and runs and runs.) And for the moment the transfer time for my weekly backup isn't too bad; I can set it up to go and do other things. I usually do it on Sunday nights, and will set it up to transfer just before going to bed. (All my computers stay on 24/7.) I may well be led to trying using Regulus as a gateway, though, because the wireless hub is going to want its own IP, and I don't have anymore without paying RR another $5 per month. Unfortunately, it's all or nothing. I tried one time enabling DHCP on Regulus, and when I did I was no longer able to access RR's DHCP even though I wasn't using Regulus's second ethernet port. So whenever I rebooted either of my other computers, I had to go and unplug Regulus from the hub briefly. Then the other computer would access RR's DHCP and get its assignment. So anyway, if you find that access to Regulus is slow or intermittent in the next couple of days, it's probably going to be because I'm experimenting with trying to make it my gateway. Of course, there's yet another possibility: I can use Regulus's second ethernet port but not enable DHCP. After all, I can enter 192.168 numbers myself; they don't need to be dynamic. So I'm not out of possibilities here. (discuss) MommaBear writes in to say that there is no NetBEUI for Linux. I'm hardly surprised at that; I didn't really expect there would be one. |
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