Linksys BEFVP41 To Connect to Novell Network

[pagreen]

I have a Linksys BEFVP41 serving as a gateway to a hybrid NT and Novell Netware 5.1 network (all on the same IP segment). Using the SSH v. 1.4 client, I was able to establish an IPSec tunnel from my home machine to the Linksys router. I can even ping the various computers on the network. However, I have not been able to figure out how to do anything else. (Bear with me--I do not do this for a living and am, at best, only a slightly knowledgable amateur). I would like to be able to access the files stored on the Novell server, as well as to use Outlook to connect to the mailboxes on the Exchange Server (which, obviously, is on one of the NT Servers). It would also be nice (although far from essential) to be able to print. I suspect there is something very obvious that I am missing. I have noticed in other messages something about setting up a "Hosts" directory under NT in order to log into the domain. I do not really understand what that means, exactly. Besides, it does not get me into the Netware services.

Also, with the SSH client, should I be selecting a virtual IP address? DHCP over IPSec does not work (even when I specify the Linksys Router's IP address as the DHCP provider). It does let me specify an IP address, but that does not seem to do anything.

Also, should I be specifying any directory services with the SSH client? Does that do anything for me?

Suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[lanceja]

1. When you ping the different servers are you using their names or IP addresses?

Since computers do not actually understand computer names but do understand numbers you need a way to translate one into the other. The "hosts" file does this. Under Windows 9X it was located under the Windows directory. Under the other versions of Windows it is located under the WINNT\System32\drivers\etc directory. If you edit the file at the bottom of the file you will see something similar to:
127.0.0.1 Localhost

If you want to use the hosts file you will have to add the IP addresses and names of your computers.

2. Directory services: I have not used SSH client but if you are talking about NETBIOS over the VPN connection then that is your decision. If you do that, then you do not need the hosts file. Netbios will do the translation for you.

3. DHCP from the router only works on the internal network. It will not propagate outside the internal network even though you are using VPN to connect.

Hopefully this will help you somewhat.

Good luck.

 

[pagreen]

Thanks for your response. I edited the Hosts file and, after using the mapping function to point to the "c" drive on my exchange server, I was able to log into the domain. I was even able to use Outlook to connect to my Exchange mailbox. However, I still have made no progress on connecting to the Netware 5.1 server. I cannot even "ping" it, which is odd, since it has a valid IP address and is on the same segment as the exchange server. I will keep trying.

 

[pagreen]

For anyone who happens upon this thread, I thought I would post how I resolved the NetWare problem. It was suggested to me on a Novell forum that I needed to reconfigure the NetWare server to add the Linksys router's internal IP address as a "default route." For instructions on how to do this, go to the Novell knowledgebase (

http://support.novell.com)

and search for TID10013002 for instructions. Although the Novell network still does not show up under the Network Neighborhood, nor does the tree show up when I "browse" from the Netware login screen, I can manually enter the tree and context (actually, I only need to use the drop-down menu, after I have entered it the first time), and log right in. Then, the network drives are even mapped correctly through the login script.