Author Topic: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox  (Read 14652 times)

SamK

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #15 on: April 28, 2009, 06:30:08 pm »
A final point related to this...

At the of the first post in this thread, reaching the eBox web-GUI from a remote machine was problematical.  To address this a lightweight GUI was locally installed.
Window Manager=Openbox
Various components of LXDE
Web Browser=Firefox

When the static ip address is allocated from the router the web can be browsed from the eBox machine in the usual manner.  When the same static ip address is allocated from eBox the web cannot be browsed.  A page load error is generated and Firefox is unable to establish a connection.

Is eBox preventing this in some way?  The eBox firewall is currently disabled.  nslookup of an external address is successful.

Sam Graf

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #16 on: April 28, 2009, 07:00:48 pm »
If this is the case (either by accident or design), creating the two groups assists in my desire to remember as little as needed and provides an aid to quickly identifying the nature of the address.
The range naming convention doesn't make it out to the client end, of course, so out there, you have to remember where the address came from.

During my Linksys "blue box" years I developed that habit of leaving the DHCP range in the "middle" of the address space, following the lead of the default range. Then I would use the unallocated addresses below the DHCP for one purpose and the addresses above for another, effectively slicing my address pie into three pieces. Since the router was x.x.x.1, I just adopted the procedure of keeping all network hardware below the DHCP range (e.g., access points). Above the DHCP range I'd stick stuff like NAS devices. The only thing I had to remember was the DHCP range, and there I just extended the Linksys default DHCP range in one direction when necessary by the size of the original default range -- 50 addresses. It all made sense to me. :)

This all happened to work well when we first deployed Linksys VPN routers and it became impractical to rely on NetBIOS names. It was (or at least seemed) easier to remember where things were since it was almost certain that the only interesting piece of the pie to a road warrior was the piece above the DHCP range. A critical user device such as a fileserver would get the first address above the DHCP range.

I tell all this just to illustrate how even a single DHCP block can still leave the subnet's address space "organized" into three "easy-to-remember" blocks of usable addresses.

eBox changes things a little in that you can set up a static address at the server/router end rather than at the client end. I love that feature!
« Last Edit: April 28, 2009, 07:11:14 pm by Sam Graf »

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #17 on: April 28, 2009, 07:01:18 pm »
Short version:
You need to assign a Gateway address for your eBox. Make it whatever the eBox IP is 192.168.2.1 I'm guessing. Don't forget to make a local DNS server too if you want.

Sam Graf

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2009, 07:07:01 pm »
When the static ip address is allocated from the router the web can be browsed from the eBox machine in the usual manner.  When the same static ip address is allocated from eBox the web cannot be browsed.
A couple of things: You're using just one DHCP server at a time, correct? Either the router or the eBox, but not both. (EDIT and note: eBox will pick up the gateway address if the external NIC is getting it's address via DHCP.)

The second thing is from memory, and from my first fuzzy days with eBox at that. As I recall, if you've ever enabled the firewall module, you must have opened port 80 even if the firewall module is subsequently disabled. In other words, if port 80 wasn't open at the time the firewall module was disabled, HTTP traffic will still be blocked. The firewall rules in effect when the module was disabled still apply. That's my recollection.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2009, 07:09:49 pm by Sam Graf »

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #19 on: April 29, 2009, 04:25:51 am »
You're thinking the wrong gateway. There's one inside and one outside. The inside gateway is what let's the people behind the eBox connect to the outside. If the eBox address is 192.168.2.1, the gateway address is the same. That's the only reason the inside people can't get out.

SamK

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #20 on: April 29, 2009, 09:44:18 am »
...leaving the DHCP range in the "middle" of the address space, following the lead of the default range. Then I would use the unallocated addresses below the DHCP for one purpose and the addresses above for another, effectively slicing my address pie into three pieces.
This is a very neat extention of what I wanted to achieve, but is only available as a product of the imaginative use of the unallocated address space. I wonder if it might be improved further?

Currently eBox allows the specification of a block of addresses that can be dynamically allocated via DHCP where the block exceeds the number of addresses presently required.  It does not allow a static address to be created within a pre-specified block where the block is greater than the number of addresses currently required.  If eBox allowed the specification of different types of blocks that incorporated unallocated addresses, (both dynamic and static), the eBox interface would become more 'self-documenting' and thereby more user friendly. Using your example it would be possible for the eBox DHCP interface to show the following:
RANGES
Name                                     From         To
Actives - Fixed                     x.x.x.2        x.x.x.30
Dynamically Allocated        x.x.x.50      x.x.x.150
Servers - Fixed                    x.x.x.230    x.x.x.250

I have no idea what might be involved in making a change such a this but am in favour of 'self-documenting' and therefore see this as a desireble development.  I am considering suggesting it via the Feature Request system and would like to refer to your post describing the way in which it was previously used.  Is this OK with you?

Apr 29 - Edited by SAMK in an attempt to clarify ambiguities.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2009, 11:15:25 am by SamK »

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #21 on: April 29, 2009, 09:49:02 am »
This functionality already exists. Now I'm really confused.

SamK

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #22 on: April 29, 2009, 10:28:33 am »
This functionality already exists. Now I'm really confused.
Can you show how to specify a range of static ip addresses where the range exceeds the number of addresses to be allocated at the moment?  Some of the specified range will remain unallocated currently and some of the range will be allocated.
e.g.
range=x.x.x.2 - x.x.x.30
number of leases required=17
 

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2009, 11:02:41 am »
Here's what mine looks like. You can see, I have no guests connected as of right now.

SamK

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #24 on: April 29, 2009, 11:18:17 am »
This functionality already exists. Now I'm really confused.
On reading the post again I can see where it was ambiguously worded and edited it in an attempt to clarify it.  Due to cross posting I have not studieed your screen shots yet.

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #25 on: April 29, 2009, 11:21:16 am »
In my image dhcp-page1.png, there is no range specified, only fixed addresses.

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #26 on: April 29, 2009, 12:45:40 pm »
Well, those are shots from my working eBox. Aren't you the one that wanted to see them?

SamK

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #27 on: April 29, 2009, 12:50:07 pm »
Your idea to use screenshots is a good one.  I am having trouble getting mine to display.  I place the path and filename (jpg) between the image tags but they do not show.  What am I missing? Any suggestions?

Saturn2888

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #28 on: April 29, 2009, 12:52:01 pm »
I don't use IMG tags. If you click the "Additional Options" dropdown, it let's you attach them.

SamK

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Re: Request Help Moving DHCP from Router to eBox
« Reply #29 on: April 29, 2009, 01:00:35 pm »
Do these help? The idea is to pre-define the groups for both static and dynamic addresses. Dummy data has been used to create the screen shots and then edited to show where the difficulty lies.