Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 12:10:17 +0100 From: Richard Morte <ric@sinclairassoc.force9.co.uk> To: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD Server and Windows Clients Message-ID: <38031719.BA1F3AE7@sinclairassoc.force9.co.uk>
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Matthias, thank you for replying. Please see my comments throughout the
following text. BTW I have also raised another thread "Traceroute
problems via Gateway" because I thought this thread was dead. If I
cannot ping/traceroute the outside world, then there's no way I am going
to be able to get wins clients to connect to the net.
Matthias Teege wrote:
>
> On Sat, Oct 09, 1999 at 03:48:03PM +0100, Richard Morte wrote:
> > Hi,
> Moin,
>
> >
> > I have been trying over the past month to set up the FreeBSD box to
> > provide networking facilities to a number of PCs running Windows 95/98.
> > I have lots of 'bits' working but have yet to achieve a fully usable
> > system. The aims are modest:
> >
> > * Set up a unix server to drive the local Windows network, allow
> > file transfers, print sharing, etc, possibly even backups if
> > I can find a suitable application.
> > * Provide a intranet to provide a local test-bed for clients' web
> > pages, run cgi scripts, etc, without having to upload to the ISP
> > to do this.
> > * Gateway to the Internet for the unix and win boxes.
> >
> > I have about 80% of each aspect working OK but am running into problems.
> > I configure one bit, but this then impacts on other areas and I'm
> > beginning to chase my own tail. I think I need a perspective on which
> > bits to include, which ones to ignore and how to get everything working
> > as a coherent design.
> >
> > If anyone has succesfully configured a similar system would you mind
> > letting me know how you did it, which processes you run and how you
> > glued the whole thing together?
> >
> > Here's what I have so far:
> > Private network using 192.168.xxx.xxx - no problems
> > Graphics with kde desktop - configured OK
> > SAMBA - working extremely well
> > Sharity Light to mount dos shares - happy with this too
> > DNS - no reported errors but still problems with IP-assigned
> > addresses. Still not sure about best TTL values,
> > though.
> > Modem - working well with good connection speeds
> > User-ppp - OK but DNS lookups still cause unexpected dial-outs
> > (have disabled -auto mode temporarily)
>
> Setup a local DNS Server and cache your providers nameserver. That works
> great for me.
I have set up a local DNS and it appears (90+% confidence) to be working
OK. From within FreeBSD I can do nslookups to local network with correct
responses and no dial-outs. With nslookups to remote hosts I get
spontaneous dialout and correct responses. The only problem has been
with sendmail (see below) and netscape spontaneously dialing out.
Netscape wanted to phone home (home.netscape.com, home6.netscape.com,
internic.net) and messenger wanted to do a lookup on mail.force9.net and
usenet.force9.net) so these 5 entries were placed in /etc/hosts because
I didn't want to create more primary DNS zones (besides which, I wasn't
sure my local DNS wouldn't try to become authoritative for genuine
internet domains). Since then netscape has worked OK and no unexpected
dialouts.
>
> > Sendmail - still trying to access fake 10.0.0.1 address
Sorry, this should have been the 10.0.0.2 corresponding to:
aset ifaddr 10.0.0.1/0 10.0.0.2/0 255.255.255.255 0.0.0.0
in ppp.conf...
>
> mark the smtp mailer as expensive in your local sendmail.cf. All of the
> outgoing mail will spooled in /var/spool/mqueue and you can empty it
> (with sendmail -q) in a ppp.linkup script.
Now to sendmail. I discovered an article in the archives from Bruce
Albrecht <bruce@zuhause.mn.org> regarding sendmail dialouts. This
involved forcibly restoring the <hisaddr> back to 10.0.0.2 in
ppp.linkdown and adding 10.0.0.2 to the DNS. I ran this by Brian Somers
and he thought it would work OK. I implemented this and sendmail no
longer dials out at 2pm. Aparrently others have tried other solutions to
this problem, but Bruce's method involves no reconfiguration of
sendmail.
>
> > Apache 1.3.6 (using name-virtual hosting) - works fine from within
> > FreeBSD but wins clients can't yet access
>
> for me it works. I think the problem is the DNS lookup. The local DNS
> server may solve this problem.
Final comment on DNS. I said I was 90+% confident it is configured OK.
The reason I am not so sure this morning is that upon inspecting the DNS
logs from the tracert session on windows I discovered the following
incorrect lookup:
req: nlookup(MAIL\.FORCE9\.NET\100.at.home) id 196 type=1 class=1
req: found 'MAIL\.FORCE9\.NET\100.at.home' as 'at.home' (cname=0)
send_msg -> [192.168.120.103].137 fd=20 id=196 size=97
But I also discovered:
req: nlookup(mail.force9.net) id 2 type=1 class=1
req: found 'mail.force9.net' as 'force9.net' (cname=0)
ns_req: answer -> [192.168.120.103].1128 (UDP 20) id=2
The former lookup is obviously from the windows client (and indeed the
windows client correctly reports the destination IP address), so the DNS
information is being passed backed to windows. But it seems the other
packets never get there. So tracert, ping, browser apps always time out.
So you might be right about the problem being with DNS. But why only for
windows clients and not the FreeBSD box?
>
> > Firewall - I guess I need one - especially with the wins shares
> > visible on the Unix box, but the thought of setting
> > one up terrifies me.
> > E-mail - use Netscape to fetch own account from ISP POP server,
> > but not sure how this will work across the gateway
>
> use fetchmail (also in the ppp.linkup script) to fetch the mail from the
> provider and forward it to the local mail system. We use a local IMAP
> Server (cyrus) for Macs, Windows boxes and Unix Clients.
Matthias, I will leave mail just for the moment, if that's OK. I'll get
back to this when the more fundamental problems have been corrected.
>
> > for
> > the wins clients.
> >
> > If you can provide any useful pointers, suggestions, inspiration or
> > examples of how you did it I shall be eternally grateful. If anyone can
> > tell me which bits of the software I definately don't need, this will be
> > useful too.
>
> all wat you want is possible and works in our environment with FreeBSD
> 2.2.8 and without any external software. So the chance is very good that
> this will also work for you :-)
>
> Ask me if you have a special question.
>
> >
> > Many thanks for your help in the past,
> > Ric
>
> Bis dann
> Matthias
>
> > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> >
>
> --
> Matthias Teege -- matthias@mteege.de -- http://emugs.de
> make world not war
> PGP-Key auf Anfrage
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