On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 19:49, Ken.McAllister wrote: > I've got two computers, Mandrake 10.0 and Mandrake 10.1, a couple of > metres apart, both with one parallel port, �and I have a Lap-link > parallel cable. �Can I connect the computers and, at the command prompt > or otherwise, send files from one to the other? yes, there is the plip device which does just this. You can then play with all the Internet Toys like ftp, http, ssh, & scp, etc., etc.
Assuming you have the plip kernel module available. If not you'll have to build it. That's another story. As root. imogen ~ # modprobe plip # If this fails, you haven't got plip imogen ~ # ifconfig plip0 10.0.0.10 up imogen ~ # route add -net 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.240 gw 10.0.0.10 plip0 imogen ~ # route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 10.0.0.0 10.0.0.10 255.255.255.240 UG 0 0 0 plip0 127.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 255.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 lo 0.0.0.0 192.168.2.3 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 Repeat on the other machine, but use a different IP number, say 10.0.0.11 Join up the wires and check with ping. ping 10.0.0.11 ( or 10.0.0.10 as the case my be. Check from both machines ) You should get a ping time of the order of 20mS or thereabouts, and a network speed of the order of 100K bytes / second. Note that that netmask gives you the ability to put upto 14 machines on your plip LAN ( Shudder, but it would be an interesting exercise :-). Note that there may also be some other pre-existing routes. > I have one printer, on one computer's parallel port. �Can I, by means of > one of those old parallel switches or otherwise, use the printer from > either computer? Don't use those parallel switches. It's far easier to set up network printing than fiddling around with those switches and running the risk of letting out the magic smoke. If you insist on using the existing parallel port for an IP connection between the two 'puters, you'll need another parallel port card for the printer. If I rummage around I think I might be able to find an ISA one. While plip is a vaguely satisfactory way of creating a slowish link in an emergency, as Volker says, it would be better to get a pair of Ethernet cards. There is an ocean of them on the way to the e-waste dump. I'm sure you can get a pair together with a length of CAT-5 cable for almost $0.00 Linux copes with all the major brands. 3Com and Intel recommended. Somebody? Alternatively might there be some serial ports available? The RUTE book expands on this exercise in Chapter 25. Feel free to use my mirror:- http://berty.dyndns.org/rute/node28.html > Much obliged in advance (gratitude, they say, is a lively sense of > future favours) Do we need to set up some lessons for this sort of stuff? I'm the coot up front at next months' CLUG meeting. My intent is to do a show which answers the question:- "I've got Linux running, what can I do now please?" I was thinking of talking about a few GUI ( they do have a place, please note that Jason ) Print-on-Paper applications, but I could do a live demo of this networking stuff if that's preferred? -- Sincerely etc., Christopher Sawtell.
