[RndTbl] network problem

[Dan Martin]

I have a home LAN that uses a iptables firewall running on FC 4 on my 
gateway machine.  I run Win2K on an internal LAN machine that I use to 
run (among other things) 2 applications that contact remote servers.  
Using SNAT in iptables, everything seemed to run fine, since all 
communications with the servers were initiated on my end and return 
packets were appropriately translated back.

Recently I upgraded one of the apps that accesses a broker and real time 
quotes.  It then failed to run, and their minimal tech support could not 
help me get it going.  The failure was blamed on my firewall.  I changed 
it to allow some new connections from the internet (DNAT) but to no 
avail.  I assumed that I had implemented DNAT incorrectly or there were 
things they weren't telling me.

Yesterday, I found I was unable to run an app that accessed a second 
server - even though I had run it many times previously.  It gave the 
error "Cannot connect to the ... server.  Proxy connection failed: the 
configured proxy server is not accepting connections."  Changing my 
firewall back to the previous version did not solve the problem.

I plugged my Win2K machine directly to the cable modem and configured it 
to connect by DHCP.  I could not get an address for it.  Shaw believes 
the modem is working and trying to assign an address.

I finally installed this second app into another Windows machine on the 
internal LAN and it ran perfectly.

It shouldn't be a firewall problem - the iptables should handle one 
internal machine exactly the same as the other - no rules specify a 
particular machine except the DNAT rules, which were removed.

It is suspicious that the NIC would not configure when plugged to the 
cable modem - but everything else works.  I can browse the web and get 
my mail.

Is this consistent with a NIC failure?  could it be something else?

-- 
  -Dan

Dr. Dan Martin, MD, CCFP, BSc, BCSc (Hon), MSc

GP Hospital Practitioner
Computer Scientist
ummar143 at shaw.ca
(204) 831-1746
answering machine always on