I have a laptop (Ubuntu), two Pi (Raspbian and Arch) and a Netgear FS108 network switch. I can make any of the computers communicate via WiFi, but I want them to communicate via the switch (wired). I've been told that I need to assign IP addresses, but I don't know how to go about it. What should I do?
2 Answers
Simplest way would be that you plug your router (or whatever you used for wireless) into switch because it looks like your wireless router was DHCP server in that network. It should work automatically.
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Sorry for not mentioning, but the problem is that I need the system to be portable, i.e work away from the router I have. Can I be sure that it'll work when I take it into school if I'm relying on my home router?– mudriMar 10, 2014 at 15:03
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That is exactly what DHCP is for. Virtually all networks (unless they are secured for some special purpose) use DHCP. If you did allocate static addresses you would have to assign different values for each network. Mar 11, 2014 at 1:35
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@James Wood you can just bring your router from home to school and you will have DHCP addresses. Another way I would go is to install DHCP server to one of your RPIs, you can find tutorials for that online. Mar 11, 2014 at 9:58
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@10robinho I am in the same boat. I have pis connected to the switch. My router has a wire coming from it to the switch. And my macbook is also connected to the switch. How do I now communicate/ssh into the pi? How do i find its IP address? Any help is appreciated. Apr 13, 2021 at 6:07
The simple approach is to let all hosts attached to your switch generate link-local addresses IPv4. They are in the 169.254/16 block. OS X and Windows hosts will do this by default in absence of a DHCP server.
On Linux, some distributions don't enable this functionality by default so you need to set it up by hand. It is known as Zero Configuration Networking. I thought Ubuntu came with Avahi already installed, but perhaps it's not running?
# install avahi
sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon
# set up a low-priority route
route add default dev eth0 metric 99
route add -net 169.254.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 dev eth0 metric 99
# run the auto-ip daemon
/usr/sbin/avahi-autoipd --daemonize --syslog --wait eth0
To check what hosts are present, from Linux you can do a broadcast ping:
ping -b 169.254.255.255
answered Mar 10, 2014 at 17:17
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None of my Linuxes seem to be doing that. I ran this command on my laptop (but with
eth0rather thaneth4), and it changed some of the output ofifconfig. But it doesn't seem to have helped.– mudriMar 10, 2014 at 23:02 -
@JamesWood The command you refer to assigns an IPv6 address. Mar 11, 2014 at 3:54
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1I ran all of those commands (
sudoed) but they didn't make a difference.avahiwas already installed, and I think was running anyway. Just plugging in the router (as per the other answer) worked. Thanks anyway.– mudriMar 11, 2014 at 22:01
DHPCin the switch should allocate addresses.