Question on Network configuration

[Derek Broughton]

Jonathan Jesse wrote:

> On Wednesday 28 September 2005 08:58, Derek Broughton wrote:
>>
>> Oh, that's still overkill.  Just run ifplugd (& waproamd if you want to
>> go
>> wirelessly).  ifplugd can take a few minutes to notice a network change -
>> that's probably configurable, though.
> 
> Any way to setup ifplugd to detect if a network is not connected and then
> it becomes connected?  

That _is_ what ifplugd does.  Except I forgot to mention that it needs
either a PCI NIC or a PC-card that supports mii (I think there are some,
but none of the ones I've used).  Then it listens for the ethernet linkbeat
and brings up the interface when it hears it.

> Also anyway to stop boot up from taking so long if 
> there is not a network connection?

In /etc/network/interfaces turn off both "auto" and "hotplug" on your
devices.  Then I find whereami, when properly configured, helps - you can
ensure that it only attempts DHCP on a server it already knows exists.

Finally, there should be a timeout setting for your DHCP client program -
lower it.  If you don't get any response from the server in 10-15 seconds
you probably aren't going to. DHCP3's dhclient defaults to 60 seconds - any
time it's taken that long, I didn't get a lease, anyway.
-- 
derek