Local Network Problem

[Eberhard Roloff]

Don Henson wrote:
> To make a long background story short...
> 
> In restoring from a major system crash, I ended up with a
> server/workstation, a workstation, and a laptop (wifi) that should be
> talking to each other over Ethernet. The laptop will not respond to a
> ping from anybody and the other two will respond to each other's pings
> if I use the domain address. They will not respond if I ping the
> corresponding IP address. This seems backwards to me but that's the way
> it is. At one point, I had all three machines talking but after
> rebooting all three, the problem returned. I've been working on this for
> a couple of days and now I find myself thoroughly confused. I have no
> idea which files and logs might be useful. If you are interested in
> helping, let me know what data you need and I'll post it forthwith. I'd
> really appreciate a little help on this one.
> 
> Don Henson
> 
on each one:

ifconfig eth0
cat /etc/hosts

then: Do you use a dhcp server for your machines? (For example, your
router could be acting as such a server)

do you use a firewall on all your machines or on specific machines?

What does a packet sniffer, ex. ethereal show on your laptop, when you
try to ping it from another machine.

If you are working with fixed ip addresses, what happes if you connect
only two machines via a crossover cable , i.e. leave out your swith and
anthing else in between.

kind regards
Eberhard