Something funny happened in the network...

This actually happened a couple of days ago, but I thought I should post about it - I'm sure someone will tell me what I was missing.

First off, networks aren't my thing. I'm very happy the magic of DHCP was created. It makes life a lot easier for those of us that aren't TCP/IP (et al) wizards. It makes life easier for those of us who don't want to be TCP/IP wizards. I fall into both categories.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, here's the story: I was setting up my "new" server. To facilitate the process, I kept it in my office and grabbed an old router since I only have one network connection in the office. Not a big deal and it should work great... right?


(Not the best picture, but MS Paint isn't the best tool!)

Anyway, the BEFSR41 router was initially connected via the Uplink port. I turned off the DHCP server from the BEFSR41 at some point during my testing.

The Windows XP box had no interference from the BEFSR41 machine and use the WRT54G as its gateway. My terminology may be wrong, but when I opened a web browser to http://192.168.1.1, I would see the WRT54G pages.

The Fedora Linux box saw the BEFSR41 router as its gateway. Again, my definition is by opening a browser window and hitting http://192.168.1.1. I changed the GATEWAY variable (/etc/sysconfig/network) to be 192.168.1.1 late in the game.

The Windows XP machine had full connectivity with the internet. The Fedora Linux box did not.

Here's the weird part: I'm certain the Linux box worked for one evening. The next morning - not rebooting - it couldn't get to the internet again. I have no idea why.

When I tried hooking the BEFSR41 to the network through the WAN port, it didn't work for either machine. This was more like what I was expecting.

After toying around with it for a couple of days, I decided I didn't really need it in the office anymore (once Linux was installed, I don't need physical access anymore). I put it in the basement, booted it up, and I've been just fine! I also removed the extra router (BEFSR41) from my office since I don't need it anymore.

I'm just puzzled. If it didn't work (which I sort of expected), I would expect to see both the Linux and Windows XP machines not have access to the internet. Or both work.

I guess I didn't expect to get it both ways! ;-)