Unix workstation on a DSL

[Bill Kimbell]

I need a little info about putting an HPUX 11.0 workstation on a Qwest DSL network at home. There are already 4 PC's on the network connected to an 8 port router. The Unix box also needs to connect to a VPN to get license keys for applications. The apps are typically run in a RefelectionX session on the PC, which needs license keys both locally and from a server at the company (port#@hostA port#@hostB). I know the IP of the gateway (the router) and of the DNS name server (Qwest) but how do I resolve the issue of not having assigned IP addresses?
Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated (I don't have money to give but I can assign points!!)
Thanks.
Bill

[Mike Hassell · Accepted solution]

Bill,

The first step would be to enable DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) on the HP-UX 11.0 box, which would pickup an address from a DHCP server. To determine if you have a DHCP server already configured, take a look at the configuration of the PCs that are already connected to this network. Do you assign a static IP address, or do you have it checked to "obtain an IP address automatically"? If you are obtaining this automatically then you have a DHCP server running. For example, the popular Linksys DSL routers enable a DHCP server by default. The easy way to enable DHCP on the HP-UX 11.0 box would be to use SAM. All the information you should need to enable DHCP can be found here:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90147/B2355-90147.html

You will also need to know what network interface is going to connect to the network, if there are multiple interfaces. Typically you'll be connecting with interface 'lan0', however you'll want to take a look at the output of 'lanscan' to see what interfaces you have available.

Now, if you don't have a DHCP server and the PCs are using static IP addresses, then you'll need to manually enter such things as the default gateway, DNS servers and an IP address for the HP-UX box itself. To do this manually edit (using the text editor found in CDE or command line via 'vi'):

/etc/rc.config.d/netconf

You'll want to assign an IP address that matches the network you're attaching to, for example:

If the PCs use something like:

192.168.1.2

then you might try:

192.168.1.100

Then you'll want to find an unused IP address on that subnet, which can be done using the 'ping' command on the PCs. You can also try this by trial and error. Basically you want to leave the first three sets of numbers the same and change the trialing address. For the DNS servers you would enter the default Qwest supplied servers and for the default gateway you would assign the IP address of the router.

As for the VPN, you'll need to find out what type of protocol you'll be using to connect to this VPN. For example some VPNs use PPTP (Popular on Microsoft VPN implementations), while others use IPSec. Please provide us with some more info on what type of VPN you're connecting to and we'll point you in the right direction.

Hope that helps.

-Mike

[Bill Kimbell]

Thanks Mike.
None of the PC's have static IP's. Once I enable DHCP on the B2600 will I still have to configure the gateway and DNS server through (i.e.) set_parms?
The VPN part of this seems to be working OK through the PC, so at this point I will work on the UNIX end and see what happens when I get connectivity.. the solution seems too simple!
Bill

[John Dvorchak]

Once DHCP is enabled on the workstation, the DHCP server should provide not only IP address but netmask, broadcast address and default router. It idea behind using DHCP is to configure the clients with enough accurate set up to get it functioning on the lan. You should not have to provide and networking parms. You will still have to configure the /etc/resolv.conf file to tell it where the DNS servers are and the default domain name. You can get this info from any of the pc's by issuing the:

c:\ipconfig /all |more

command from a DOS prompt. On Winnt you can get a "Command prompt" by clicking on "Start-Run-" then type cmd in the dialog box.
Good luck.

[Bill Kimbell]

Thanks Mike and John,
It really was quite easy and once the network admin gets time we'll get the VPN configured. That appears to be the only loose end.. getting access to the internal network.
Thanks again.
Bill

[Bob Weber]

Most of the solutions regarding this issue indicate to use SAM to configure your system. The only thing I could find in SAM is the ability to make your system a DHCP server which I am not sure is what the original question was. Actually what I want to do is have my HPUX system become a DHCP client and obtain an IP, etc. from a Cisco DSL router. Can anyone explain how to do this? Which option in SAM would do this. I can't modify /etc/dhcptab because it is blank and /etc/bootptab does not contain instructions.
Thanks,
Bobw