Bridging Connections?

dulpit

Hey, I have an xbox 360 but don't have the wireless gizmo for it, so to access xbox live i bridge the connection between my wireless & wired connection on my laptop and hook the xbox up to that...

It's a simple task to complete in windows (go to network connections, highlight both, right click and then bridge connections...) but i can't seem to be able to do it in Ubuntu...

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

niallb

Try this to start with:

type
echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
into a terminal window.
(Just copy and paste it)
You'll be asked for your password.

If that works, you can make the change permanent by editing the file
/etc/sysctl.conf

Look for this line:

# Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4
#net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

and remove the # mark from in front of the word net.

There's probably a graphical way of doing this,
but this should get you running.

dulpit

Cool, i'll try that tonight and hopefully it'll work... I'll let ye know...

dulpit

Tried that, nothing happened until i plugged in the network cable between the xbox & laptop, soon as i did that the internet stopped working altogether...

niallb

I'm having difficulty picturing what you're aiming at.

How do you usually have things wired?
Do you usually need to plug the xbox into your laptop,
and where does the wireless come in - is your internet access over it?

When you plugged in the cable you mention. did you unplug anything else?
With the xbox turned off, how do you normally connect to the internet with the laptop?
If you have a wireless router, what model is it, and how far is it from the Xbox?

Jackz

Sounds like you are trying to share your wireless with your xbox via your laptop. If this is at all possible you will need a crossover cable between them.

Webmonkey

Jackz wrote: »

Sounds like you are trying to share your wireless with your xbox via your laptop. If this is at all possible you will need a crossover cable between them.

Why don't you place your eth port of Ubuntu box and Xbox live on a serparate network. Then place the default gateway on the Xbox as this eth port. And then do staic routes between the wifi network and the wired network.

dulpit

niallb wrote: »

I'm having difficulty picturing what you're aiming at.
...

We have a PC upstairs, the tv & xbox is downstairs. The router (whatever the eircom standard wireless one is) is upstairs also. Because the xbox doesn't have built in wireless, the only way i can get my xbox to access the interwebs is to a) hook it up directly to the router or b) hook it up through my laptop. On windows i bridge my connection between the wireless & wired ports. I plug an ethernet cable into the wired port and into the xbox. The internet signal thing comes in through the wireless, then gets shipped out through the wired port into the xbox. That way i can get on xbox live.

This is piss easy to do with windows, but seems to be a bitch for ubuntu...

niallb wrote: »

When you plugged in the cable you mention. did you unplug anything else?

Nope.

I think i've answered all the other questions in the first part of reply...

dulpit

Webmonkey wrote: »

Why don't you place your eth port of Ubuntu box and Xbox live on a serparate network. Then place the default gateway on the Xbox as this eth port. And then do staic routes between the wifi network and the wired network.

I have no idea what this means or how it can be accomplished... As i said, this is a simple task in windows, surely it can be easily done in linux too?

Snowbat

A bridge can be configured from the command line:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkConnectionBridge

If you want this feature included in the Network Manager GUI, vote for this idea:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/4660/

niallb

dulpit wrote: »

We have a PC upstairs, the tv & xbox is downstairs. The router (whatever the eircom standard wireless one is) is upstairs also. Because the xbox doesn't have built in wireless, the only way i can get my xbox to access the interwebs is to a) hook it up directly to the router or b) hook it up through my laptop. On windows i bridge my connection between the wireless & wired ports. I plug an ethernet cable into the wired port and into the xbox. The internet signal thing comes in through the wireless, then gets shipped out through the wired port into the xbox.

Perfect description.
Bridging interfaces is done easily enough on linux, but I guess as most people
who would think of doing it for a good reason are comfortable with the command line,
there just isn't a simple GUI tool for it.

If you post up the current contents of your file /etc/network/interfaces
one of us might be able to give you the extra few lines to make this happen automatically.
It'll involve adding a few lines along the lines of
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_interfaces eth0 wlan0
I'll keep an eye out for a reply later in the day.
Good luck with it,
NiallB

dulpit

Snowbat wrote: »

A bridge can be configured from the command line:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkConnectionBridge

Couldn't get that working...



@niallb: the contents of /etc/network/interfaces is:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

niallb

Try changing the /etc/network/interfaces file like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 wlan0

You're probably using the gnome Network Manger, or wicd which is why your
interfaces file only contains loopback entries. After changing it to the above,
you may need to stop the Network manager by typing
sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
If you don't it'll notice changes to your network configuration and 'fix'
them for you without comment leaving it not working.

Once the manager is stopped, you can try ifup br0.

This all assumes you have DHCP running on your network,
probably on your router.

Note, a small number of wireless cards are completely unable to form bridges under linux.
What type of card do you have? Typing 'iwconfig' should list out
your interfaces, and list the wireless interface among them.
You should also replace the characters wlan0 in the above
code with that interface name. It may be eth1, ath0, wifi0 or a few others.

Good luck

dulpit

niallb wrote: »

Try changing the /etc/network/interfaces file like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 wlan0

OK, i did that, and then the internet went and stopped working...

niallb wrote: »

You're probably using the gnome Network Manger, or wicd which is why your
interfaces file only contains loopback entries. After changing it to the above,
you may need to stop the Network manager by typing
sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
If you don't it'll notice changes to your network configuration and 'fix'
them for you without comment leaving it not working.

Tried that, but didn't work at all, something along the lines of that the
command can't be found...

niallb wrote: »

Once the manager is stopped, you can try ifup br0.

I did this, it ran something, but internet still dead.

niallb wrote: »

This all assumes you have DHCP running on your network,
probably on your router.

Note, a small number of wireless cards are completely unable to form bridges under linux.
What type of card do you have? Typing 'iwconfig' should list out
your interfaces, and list the wireless interface among them.
You should also replace the characters wlan0 in the above
code with that interface name. It may be eth1, ath0, wifi0 or a few others.

Good luck

I was able to leave it at wlan0 (as that is what it was called) As for the wireless card, it's an Intel Wireless WiFi Link 1965AGN...

Is it a hopeless case?

niallb

Are you sure that's not a 4965?
(Searching for the card name with 1965 gives 0 results on Google, 4965 gives 545,000
so forgive me for double checking!)

Could you post the actual output of for example the 'iwconfig' command,
or the output of the 'lspci' command ?

Also the words "It ran something" aren't much use to me.
Copy and paste what happened. Help me to help you.