2 3com 3c509b cards in redhat 6.2 box & can't ping network

[EuphonicTrash]

I'm trying to install two 3com 3c509b (16 bit ISA) NIC's in a redhat 6.2 server/firewall. I've gotten the kernel to recognize both NICs. It brings both of them up at boot time and they can ping each other and the loop back interface.

But I can't ping other machines on the network. would this have something to do with an improperly configured /etc/hosts file?

Thanks.

 

[linuxtricks]

my 2 cents (for what its worth):

Always start with the little things first.

1. Check your network cable going to each machine.
2. Check your routing table
3. Check each NIC configuration

/etc/hosts is only good for resolving names into ip addresses. If you are trying to ping the other machine by name, then you'd probably need an entry (name = ip) of the system you are trying to reach in /etc/hosts. Other than that you shouldn't have to worry about it.
I HATE BEING A NEWBIE!
-grumpy smurf

 

[EuphonicTrash]

The route table looks good, there's a route for each NIC and the loopback.
Other machines on the network can ping each other.
Each NIC has its own ip, is loaded, etc.

Its a bit complicated after all.

 

[EuphonicTrash]

Another interesting thing I noticed:
When both cards are in the machine and I manually configure
them with ifconfig, when I turn eth1 off, I can ping the
network with eth0. But after ten packets or so, five of which (every other one) are reported as dupes, the packets start dissapearing. The cards work fine when there's only one.

 

[EuphonicTrash]

PROBLEM SOLVED:

The reason the NICs would interfear with each other is because despite different irqs, the ioport was somehow the same, or at least linux thought they were. When I tried to manually configure the ioports the kernel modules wouldn't load.
I had to download the newest command line
utility package from 3com. Previously I had only been able
to turn off PnP for one NIC, not both. Also, you have to use the 3com software to set the io and irq settings in addition to setting them up in /etc/conf.modules