Thanks to the three people who responded to my query on the subject, I
was able to get my two boxes talking to each other. Both Patrick
Wiseman and Douglas Allan Tutty suggested that I not use aliases for
each box tied to a local domain name, which I had not properly
configured in any event. They both suggested that I use static IP
addresses for each box instead assigned by me, rather than dynamic ones
assigned by the gateway through DHCP. Mr. Tutty went further, pointing
out errors in the /etc/hosts file in both boxes.
On the strength of this information I added to both /etc/hosts files
arbitrarily assigned IP addresses with aliases:
192.168.0.2 SOL
192.168.0.4 LAP
(I left untouched all the other information in both those files.)
Then on the server box (SOL) I ran "/etc/init.d/nfs-server start", which
was accepted. I then pinged each box from the other. The response was
"interesting". The SOL box returned:
From 192.168.0.114 imcp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
The LAP box returned
From 192.168.0.142 imcp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
I consequently concluded that 192.168.0.114 was the current address
of the SOL computer and that 192.168.0.142 was that of the LAP computer.
I changed the two /etc/hosts files to conform to these addresses and
again pinged each box from the other. This time the returns included
the current IP addresses of both, together with their aliases: LAP
(192.168.0.142) and SOL (192.168.0.114).
Still using the aliases -- now linked to IP addresses -- I once
more ran on the SOL computer as root "/etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server
start", which was accepted. Finally, as root on LAP I ran as root
"mount -t nfs SOL:/home /home", which worked. The /home directory on
SOL thereby became /home directory on the laptop -- a temporary
arrangement set up for testing -- there is nothing yet in the /home
directory on the LAP.
I then rebooted both boxes to see if these IP addresses were static.
As the same ones reappeared after rebooting I assumed that they were
indeed static.
After I had done all the foregoing I received a third answer to my
query, from Ivan Tiliatnikov. As this one was off list I quote it in full:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To find a real IP address of the host use ifconfig command.
For example it shows that my laptop has an ip address
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:3F:EA:0B:07
inet addr:192.168.1.10 Bcast:129.78.236.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
=====================
inet6 addr: fe80::212:3fff:feea:b07/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:72991 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:35417 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:80972369 (77.2 MiB) TX bytes:4090925 (3.9 MiB)
Interrupt:169
The IP address is assigned either statically or dynamically via DHCP
( from your router ). In my case it is static so that I do not have to
change /etc/hosts all the time. Some of the routers can be configured
give fixed IP addresses to known hosts. Check if yours can do it. If
answer is yes, configure it to give your machine a static address e.g.
192.168.1.10. You will need MAC address of you network card to do that.
"ifconfig" command will help you again, see HWaddr feild ( HWaddr
00:12:3F:EA:0B:07 ).
Here is my setup I have two machine a desktop and a laptop.
laptop: 192.168.1.10
desktop: 192.168.1.11
In my LAPTOP /etc/hosts a have an entry
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.10 mylaptop
On my desktop /etc/hosts is
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.11 mydesktop
If both machines are on and ifconfig shows that IP addresses are
correctly assigned, try
>From 192.168.1.10 try diagnostic command:
ping 192.168.1.11
or mydesktop
It will show you that traffic is reaching the second machine.
Press Ctrl-C to stop.
Hope this help.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had not known about the ifconfig command. I ran it on both boxes. It
confirmed those IP addresses and aliases, and much else besides.
Mr. Tiliatnikov suggested that I set up the gateway to assign to each
box a static IP address, rather than allow DHCP on the gateway to assign
a dynamic address, which presumably would be different each time each
box is booted.
My gateway is a D-Link DI-704. Looking at its configuration I found that
the connection to the ISP was PPPoE, and that the DHCP server was
enabled, with the starting and ending addresses for the IP pool set at
192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.199 respectively.
However, even though the DHCP server is enabled, it appears that once
the gateway -- or at least mine -- initially assigns an IP address to a
computer at random it is never changed thereafter. This arrangement
consequently obviates the need to assign them manually, a complicated
procedure.
Ken Heard
Toronto, Canada
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