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How to Configure Your System for Networking This page is a series of instructions for configuring your SGI computer for an Ethernet network connected to the Internet. Note that these instructions are directed toward SGI users on the ISU campus. These instructions will not work as described for systems not connected to the ISU telecommunications infrastructure. If you find that you have a question that has not been answered within these pages, please contact ecss_support@eng.iastate.edu. Getting ConnectedThe first step in the process is to get a network connection. If you already have other machines in your office that are networked, this step might be done already. You will need to verify that your office has an Ethernet connection to it. Most offices at ISU have a data jack on the same wall connector as the telephone. The data jack is usually orange. But just because you have a data jack doesn't mean that it's Ethernet. Check with your telecommunications coordinator and make sure that you have an active Ethernet jack before proceeding. Cables, Connectors, Transceivers, and HubsYou will need to decide on the type of Ethernet media you want to use. There are two common media types for an Ethernet network:
A hub is an electronics device that allows several networked devices in a office to share one network line. They are commonly used when there is only one incoming/outgoing network connection to a room but there are several computers in the room that need to be connected to the outside. Most basic hubs have connections for both 10Base-T and 10Base2 cabling arrangements. So, with a hub, it is possible to have both 10Base-T and 10Base2 cabling within a room. The hubs usually make their final connection to the outgoing data jack over 10Base-T wire. If you need to purchase a hub, you must make sure you purchase all of the cable lengths to connect everything together. Getting an IP AddressWhile you are in the process of getting your network connection, you will need to get an IP address for your machine. An IP address is absolutely essential if you want to connect your machine to the Internet. An IP address has two parts: an IP number and an IP name. The easiest way to request and IP address at ISU, is to log in to Project Vincent and use the request utility.
Vincent Request Version 1.7 - Main Menu
1) Exit Request
2) Communication server access
3) Disk quota
-> 4) Domain name service (IP# and hostname)
5) Ethernet service (student residence halls only)
6) Locker (for software)
7) Mailing List (Majordomo)
8) NFS group name
9) PPP access
10) Printer connection
11) Scratch space
12) Software (Vincent only)
Domain Name Service Request Owner/user: *[Bob Smith ] Department: [Engineering Computing Systems Support ] Building: [Marston Hall ] Room: *[210 ] Ethernet Jack-ID: [B2333111AA ] MUST start with "B23" Type of system: (make/model as in "Zenith Z-Station" or "Apple Macintosh IIci") *[SGI Indy ] Requested name: (optional - one will be supplied if not provided) [snoopy.iastate.edu ] a-z, 1-9, dash, ONE level, must start with letter a-z Special Instructions: 1) Please put this machine in the eng.iastate.edu domain. 2) 3) 4) 5) Fields preceded with a "*" are REQUIRED Configuring Networking on Your Machine.If you have a network connection to your computer and you've been assigned an IP address, you're on the home stretch. The final part of the process involves modifying certain system files on your computer responsible for networking. The steps below summarize all you need to do to set up networking:
The Gory DetailsFollow the steps below carefully. To perform these steps, you will need how to use a simple text editor. SGI supplies a simple text editor called jot. The steps below refer often to the jot editor. On IRIX 6.3 (the O2s) the jot editor has been replaced by nedit. If you have an O2, just substitute jot with nedit in the steps below.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All of the buildings at ISU are connected to the campus network with routers that handle the routing of network traffic to the correct destination. For this reason, it is recommended that you turn off the route daemon with the chkconfig command above. Each router on campus is given the IP address 129.186.{SUBNET}.254, where {SUBNET} is the subnet of your IP address. We recommend that you add a static route to the router in your building. Setting a static route tells your computer to send all of the network traffic to the router. This is by far the easiest and the safest way to set up networking on campus. Write and save the /etc/hosts file. Change the file to read: #ident "@(#)sadmin:etc/TIMEZONE 1.2" #ident "$Revision: 1.6 $" # Set timezone environment to default for the machine TZ=CST6CDT Write and save the /etc/TIMEZONE file. Testing your network connectionIf you entered all of the steps under The Gory Details correctly, this section is entirely unnecessary. But since there will always be people who encounter some problems, this section will help you test whether the networking is set up correctly.
You should see the result: Server: ns-1.iastate.edu Address: 129.186.1.200 Name: info.iastate.edu Address: 129.186.1.20 Aliases: www.iastate.edu If you get the results above, networking is working. If you don't get any results, or the command appears to hang, networking is not working. You should the following results: PING www.sgi.com (204.94.214.4): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 204.94.214.4: icmp_seq=0 ttl=245 time=96 ms 64 bytes from 204.94.214.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=245 time=156 ms 64 bytes from 204.94.214.4: icmp_seq=2 ttl=245 time=89 ms 64 bytes from 204.94.214.4: icmp_seq=3 ttl=245 time=133 ms 64 bytes from 204.94.214.4: icmp_seq=4 ttl=245 time=94 ms ----www.sgi.com PING Statistics---- 5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 89/113/156 ms If you don't get any results or the command appears to hang, then networking is not working. Double check whether you have entered the steps correctly under The Gory Details. |
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Graphics® and the Silicon Graphics logo® are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Updated April 8, 1997; John Dickerson Iowa State University |
