WLAN access and Possible DNS problem

[jimwill]

Ok, I've just spent several hours reading the posts here and haven't seen my problem. If someone knows where the answer is please let me know!?

I just got my wireless router (ZyXel P-320W) and a linksys 54g pcmcia card on my laptop. I'm running 5.9 standard gold on my desktop and 5.8 SOHO on the laptop. The wireless card is showing as eth0, which does not seem to be affecting the wireless - wifi-radar works and I'm able to get an ip from the router with no problem.

Problems - Whenever I go to any website I get a 'looking up <website name>' for a second or two before it connects. This is on both the laptop and desktop. Do I need to start populating my hosts file, if so is there any way to do that automatically when I visit a webpage? I have set up the ISP's DNS server ip in the router.

Next problem -
Running XXAMP on desktop to serve a webpage (using no-ip) - I can access the webpage via the internet, but not the intra net (LAN) via the laptop. If I put in the ip of the desktop (192.168.1.xx) I get an error message that it cannot connect. I do have port forwarding enabled in the router. What I want is to be able to connect to the webpage on the desktop even if the internet (DSL) is down (which happens frequently here as I'm on the end of the local aDSL circuit!)

Also, how do I setup to share files/resources (printer) between the two computers. (I admit I haven't looked for this specifically as yet).

Thanks for any help or pointers!!!

[M0E-lnx]

Are you using static IP's or getting them automatically using a dhcp server?
I've noticed this kind of lag when using static IP's on my home network

Not sure why you can't connect to your l ocal web server.
Assuming both machines are running VL, try disabling the firewall on the one that runs the XAMMP server

Code:

service firewall stop

And then try to access it from again by just using the ip address from the other box

For your printing questions... this wiki has helped me set up a shared printer at home... follow it to setup your network printing
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CUPS_Setup

[bigpaws]

Do I need to start populating my hosts file, if so is there any way to do that automatically when I visit a webpage?

/etc/hosts is not designed for that. It is designed to be used in some cases.

One would be before a DNS server is available or two would be setup for
an internal network that is using NAT. Try localhost for your webpage problem.

The slow response maybe latency from your ISP troubleshoot that connection
before proceeding. Some of the tools would be ping or traceroute, nmap may
also be some help.

Check your route to make sure the DNS is setup for the router. You could try to
change your DNS settings instead of directly to the router use the router and a
setup one of your ISP DNS servers as well.

HTH

Bigpaws

[jimwill]

Ok guys, thanks!

I checked my firewall on the server and it is off - thought it was, but wanted to make sure.
I'm using dhcp, haven't tried static ip's yet.

However -
  While waiting I decided to change from an open wifi to a wep setup. Couldn't connect from the laptop, so I switched back to open on the router. Now I can't connect from the laptop. Running wifi-radar as root I get the message that this device does not support scan! It does find the router ssid, but cannot acquire an ip address. - I'll keep working at it till I get it going again!! (Sometimes think the rust is blocking my thinking! ) After I get other things working I'll get into the printing!