Simple Networking Question

phobos

Right,

A mate of mine is doing his FY project in Electronic Engineering, and has some hardware that he can connect to a network. The hardware is a web server component, that has an ethernet and serial interface. The serial is just used to get/set IP address of the chip. The ethernet connection obviously lets you connect to it and request a file from the server etc etc...

But because I don't have much experience with networks (either does he), we ran in to a bit of a problem when trying to establish a HTTP connection. When I open IE and try to connect to it's IP, my computer just pops up a internet connection dialog (trying to connect to the "remote" IP). But what is pi$$ing me off is that it's acutally on the same network as my own machine, and why is it trying to connect to the net?.

The component came with an IP of 192.168.1.250 and when I tried to ping it, it just told me that the destination was unreachable. So then I got the IP of my NIC, which was:

XXX.XXX.XXX.33

so I changed to components IP to:

XXX.XXX.XXX.34

and now for some reason I was able to ping it, and send data. Now with this new IP, I once again tried a HTTP connection using IE, and same 'ol dialup connection dialog appeared again.

So just for the sake of it I connected to the web, and tried a connection. Believe it or not, it acutally worked. I was able to request files from the component, and all was well. But I was on the phone and it was costing me of course, so what the fukk!

How come this wouldn;t work when I was offline. Before I connected to the web I even tried installing IPX/NetBEUI protocols, and still nothing.

I would really appreciate if someone could just clear up this madness for us

cheers,

;-phobos-)

Jaden

In Internet Explorer, goto "Tool" then "Internet Options", and click on the "Connection" Tab. Set option to "Never Dial A Connection". This will stop IE from looking for your modem when it tries to connect to the device.

phobos

Cheers Rob,

I don't have the device here, but I'll take your word for it.

Let's just say that I wanted to telnet to the device, I would imagine a dialup dialog appearing. The IE sollution should accomodate my current needs, but is there any more permanent sollution that I could implement in Window's settings that would solve this.

Listen I have a PCMCIA NIC belonging to you for the past few months. If you are in Galway some weekend you can pick it up.

TA

;-phobos-)

Bosco

Heya Phobos,

For a start, the reason it wouldn't work until after you changed the IP address on the device is because both hosts have to be on the same IP 'network' in order to communicate (unless you have a router handy to connect the two networks together.) With a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 the first three numbers in the IP address identify the network, thus both hosts must have IP addresses in the range xxx.yyy.zzz.1 to xxx.yyy.zzz.254. ( 0 and 255 are unusable as these addresses correspond to the network identifier and broadcast address.)

As far as the dialup connection goes, Jadens right, it's probably just IE set to automatically connect to the internet every time it is run. If you can ping the second host from the first, then you can almost certainly connect send HTTP requests, or telnet (assuming the second host supports/permits telnet sessions). There should be no need for any dialup connection.

Hope this helps,

Bosco

Jaden

IE Controls the way networking is handled in Windows. If you disable it there, it buggers off everywhere else. You can Telnet normally now.

I live in Galway, gimme back my card you muppet.

I'll pick it up off ya next drinkies we meet up for.....

phobos

Originally posted by Jaden

I live in Galway, gimme back my card you muppet.

Bring it on Biatch

And you don't live in Galway, you live in outer Galway in a place called Fullamuck, or something to that extent.

There, people greet eachother with "Howya" instead of "Howzitgoin". There's a difference you see.

;-phobos-)

moist

Originally posted by phobos



and now for some reason I was able to ping it, and send data. Now with this new IP, I once again tried a HTTP connection using IE, and same 'ol dialup connection dialog appeared again.

So just for the sake of it I connected to the web, and tried a connection. Believe it or not, it acutally worked. I was able to request files from the component, and all was well. But I was on the phone and it was costing me of course, so what the fukk!

IE is probably trying to do a DNS lookup of the IP address of this "network Device".
What DNS server(s) do you have configured in Windows Networking (or whatever its called)?
Perhaps you could set up a DNS server for your network and point at that, or you could set up
a hosts file (c:\windows\hosts on win9X (I think) or perhaps hosts.sam)
The format is the IP address, whitespace, and then
the hostname, and you can have multiple entries
each on a different line, i.e.

192.168.1.1 www.blah.com
192.168.1.2 mail.blan.com

and so forth.

Bosco

Moist,

IE would only try to perform a DNS lookup if you were trying to access the device by name, as opposed to by IP address.

Bosco

moist

It does a reverse DNS lookup,
I get the following from tcpdump if I put the boards.ie IP address (216.247.239.48) in my browser...

21:19:03.302979 ts16-188.dublin.indigo.ie.sas-1 > ann.indigo.ie.domain: 38836+ PTR? 48.239.247.216.in-addr.arpa. (45)
21:19:06.202348 ann.indigo.ie.domain > ts16-188.dublin.indigo.ie.sas-1: 38836* 6/3/3 PTR news.boards.ie., PTR www.boards.ie., PTR www.irelandoffline.com., PTR irelandoffline.com., PTR ftp.irelandoffline.com., PTR mail.irelandoffline.com. (296)

Acidflash

alright folks,

The reason the reverse dns,also called an inverse query , lookup doesn't work is because it has simply been disabled on boards.ie

This is quiet a common practice on the net.The main reason being security.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Originally posted by Acidflash
alright folks,

The reason the reverse dns,also called an inverse query , lookup doesn't work is because it has simply been disabled on boards.ie

C:\>ping -a 216.247.239.48

Pinging news.boards.ie [216.247.239.48].....

The reason you don't get boards.ie when you type the IP address into a browser is the site is using host headers.

This is quiet a common practice on the net.The main reason being security.

What security would that give you?

po0k

Phobos has a PDA that runs Quake.

I want a PDA that runs Quake.

I have no money.

I really, really need to get that mobile Pilot space.

mcloughl

the reason the 33 address didint work was because it probably wasnt a valid IP address for that subnet....Learn how to calculate valid IP addresses, I would tell you but its way too much info for this forum!;)

Gavin

Originally posted by mcloughl
the reason the 33 address didint work was because it probably wasnt a valid IP address for that subnet....Learn how to calculate valid IP addresses, I would tell you but its way too much info for this forum!;)

We weren't given the network address, so don't talk crap. The problem was as stated above. IE causing trouble...

Gav

mcloughl

Quote.

So then I got the IP of my NIC, which was:

XXX.XXX.XXX.33

so I changed to components IP to:

XXX.XXX.XXX.34

and now for some reason I was able to ping it, and send data.


Im sure this appeared in the post somewhere

Gavin

Yes. That's right. The network address being the part that is XXX'd out...... and he didn't even give the subnet mask either !!!


Gav

phobos

Lads,

There's no need to start bickering over a problem that I once had. Twas simple to solve really. All I had to do is configure the device's IP, to my network address. Then tell IE to shut the **** up, and stop looking on the net.

But on another note, why the hell would a browser do an "Inverse Query" to a DNS. I thought to whole point of DNS is so peons don't have to remember IPs of their favourite servers, and can refter to them by host name instead. I would have though if you manually entered the HTTP server's IP, it would rule out the need to connect to a DNS. As long as the web server accepts those headers, of course.

TA,
;-phobos-)