Configuring For Internet Access Using Router

[Gerard Seibert]

I tried sending the following message yesterday, but I believe it got
lost somehow. In any event, it never was relayed by freebsd-questions.
So here I go again.

I am having a problem getting my system properly configured. I have three 
computers - 2 are WinXP Pro and one Free BSD. They are connected via a hub 
and then to a Net Gear RT311 Gateway Router. This is then connected to a 
cable modem. If I run my system with it configured as the files listed below 
show, then it seems to works alright. However, that is not the way the router 
manual says to do it.

The manual wants th OS to obtain an IP automatically.
The IP address of the PC is between 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.31
The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0
The default gateway is 192.168.0.1

If I disable the lines in the dhclient.conf file and reboot, my system will no 
longer make an Internet connection. Running nslookup will fail as well.

Neither of my two WinXP boxes exhibits this phenomena. Perhaps someone can 
assist me with this . Also, when I access my router, it does not show a host 
name, although it does for the other two computers, It lists the IP as 
192.168.0.4 as well as it's MAC address.  Why is it not displaying a host 
name? It should, shouldn't it.


Thanks

Gerard Seibert
gerard-seibert at rcn.com

System Info Below:

root at rcn ~ $ ifconfig -a

rl0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        options=8<VLAN_MTU>
        inet6 fe80::250:baff:fe40:6de1%rl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        inet 192.168.0.4 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
        ether 00:50:ba:40:6d:e1
        media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX)
        status: active
plip0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3


root at rcn ~ $ uname -a

FreeBSD rcn.com 5.2.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Feb 23 20:45:55 
GMT 2004     root at wv1u.btc.adaptec.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

re.config file:

saver="logo"
blanktime="3600"
hostname="rcn.com"
ifconfig_rl0="DHCP"
linux_enable="YES"root at rcn ~ $ ifconfig -a
lpd_enable="YES"
named_enable="YES"
named_flags="-u bind -g bind"
sendmail_enable="NONE"
sshd_enable="YES"
usbd_enable="YES"
ntpd_enable="YES"
clear_tmp_enabled="YES"
moused_flags="-z 4 5"
moused_port="/dev/ums0"
moused_type="auto"

resolv.conf:

search rcn.com
nameserver 207.172.3.8
nameserver 207.172.3.9
nameserver 192.168.0.1

dhclient.conf:

interface "rl0" {
prepend domain-name-servers 207.172.3.8, 207.172.3.9;
prepend domain-name rcn.com;
}

Runnihng ifconfig -a yields the following:

root at rcn ~ $ ifconfig -a
rl0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        options=8<VLAN_MTU>
        inet6 fe80::250:baff:fe40:6de1%rl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        inet 192.168.0.4 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
        ether 00:50:ba:40:6d:e1
        media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX)
        status: active
plip0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3