Network Setup

[melbourne]

I recently tried to set up a private intranet with Fedora 1 as a server and a Windows 98 host, using static IP addresses.
After connecting the two directly with a patch cable, I was unable to ping from either computer.
By all indications the network cards are working in both machines.
The details are as follows:

Windows 98:
Netgear FA311 ethernet card
static IP address 192.168.1.2
subnet mask 255.255.255.0

Fedora 1
3COM ethernet card
static IP 192.168.1.1
subnetmask 255.255.255.0

I can ping the same computer using localhost or the IP address set, but cannot reach the other.
I tried using two cables (CAT5) to rule out any cable fault and checked the connections.
As I have used static addresses I can rule out issues with DHCP and as I am trying to ping
using IP addresses, I think I can rule out DNS issues.

I would appreciate a detailed list of instructions for this one, as I haven't tried setting up a network before.

Thanks

[carbo18]

Are you linking the network card to each other directly? If so are you using a crossover cable? Because you will need one. :D

Or are you connecting the computers via a hub or switch?

[melbourne]

Yes I am using a patch cable to link the machines directly, and I tried two seperate cables to rule out any cable fault. I also tried adding the windows machine to the host list on the linux machine using the network configuration utility.
The details in /etc/hosts are:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.2 windows pavilion

[Varkk]

is your cable crossed over? as carbo18 said you need a crossed over cat5 patch cable to directly link two machines. One easy way to check is if there are any LEDs lit up on the network cards indicating they have a physical link.

[melbourne]

Thanks for the advice.
The cable was not crossover cable.
The next problem I have is connecting to Apache on the Linux machine from a host on the network.
I entered the IP address of the Linux machine in the browser on the Windows machine but didn't get the default page from the Linux Apache root directory.