Problem setting up wired networking

[Michal Jaegermann]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 07:40:14AM +0000, Anne Wilson wrote:
> 
> Networking is the one aspect of Fedora that always confuses me.
> It seems to me that on a laptop I want/need NetworkManager to work
> with wifi wherever I am working.

Usually wifi gets its addresses through DHCP and you want for
that NetworkManager running.

> OTOH, at home I would generally want to work with wired.

If you are in control of a corresponding DHCP server (a big IF) then
the the easiest way is to, _on that server_, lock up a particular IP
number to a MAC address of a wired interface of your laptop,
configure that interface for DHCP and sick NetworkMangler on it.
That way if you are using a wired connection away from home you have
a huge chance that it will work "automagically" too and at home you
still can find your laptop always at the same address.  If you do
not care about the same address then disregard "locking" and just
use DHCP.

Home routers usually come with a DHCP server (and for sure if they
have wireless interfaces too) but how configurable that is another
question.  If you have a "server type" box on your home network then
you can run your own DHCP server on it as well and that you can
configure until cows come home ('man dhcpd.conf').  Turn off then
that one on a router so they will not compete

If DHCP on a wired interface is not an option then you need
'network' service running as well.  Make sure that in corresponding
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX there is a line
'NM_CONTROLLED=no'. system-config-network will put that for you,
eventually, and that what the quoted earlier bug was about.
Missing such line amount to 'NM_CONTROLLED=yes' but for your own
sanity in the future you may want to be explicit about it.

Now NM used to have a bug that it ignored NM_CONTROLLED
configuration and was grabbing wrong interfaces too.  If that
is still present in F10 or not I do not know.  It is a serious
obstacle if there and if NM is used at all forces you into a DHCP
configuration on all interfaces.

> Can you 
> please spell out for me which services I should be using?

And now Jesse Keating will tell you that this is so simple that it
is an envy of the world.  As a matter of fact he already did.

   Michal