need some basic help on ifconfig

[daemon-dd]

dear all,

For some reason my machine at work has changed its IP address (I am guessing a DHCP lease?). I can not access it. After reading man ifconfig I had a colleague try

#ifconfig rl0 inet 192.168.168.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 that did not work, he got a syntax error.

I am using 7.0 release. Can any one please tell me how to manually set the IP address of my machine as I have no other machine to try the command on, I really need to get access.

many thanks in advance

[jbhappy]

Originally Posted by daemon-dd

dear all,

For some reason my machine at work has changed its IP address (I am guessing a DHCP lease?). I can not access it. After reading man ifconfig I had a colleague try

#ifconfig rl0 inet 192.168.168.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 that did not work, he got a syntax error.

that syntax is correct. can your colleague supply you with the exact error he got?

[graudeejs]

you need to add nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to /etc/resolv.conf
you can add as many as you like there (1 line for each) (it's DNS server IP address)

[BSDfan666]

There are some possibilities:

• Your colleague made a mistake entering the command..
• You didn't give the colleague the right command... 192.168.168.x doesn't look very right.
• rl0 isn't the correct interface..

We honestly can't diagnose problems like this... have you ever played that game where people pass the phrase? eventually it becomes scrambled/unintelligible.

Instead of changing the IP address of the interface, why don't you ask your colleague to determine the *new* IP assigned by DHCP. (If it's a server, it shouldn't be dynamic...).

Now, I assume you're on the same LAN as this system.. why can't you physically go check the state of the machine? or are you attempting to access a machine over the internet via a private IP?

[daemon-dd]

Thanks,

what I had originally done is:

#dhclient rl0 (because I know that is the interface) my firewall/dhcp gave me 192.168.168.2 (that is my LAN). I am not on the same network (or even the same country), so yes I am accessing via internet.

Now I asked him to #ifconfig
that returns 192.168.168.3 my firewall is set to allow traffic to 192.168.168.2 and now asking my colleague to configure my firewall would be well.....

/etc/resolv.conf already has the nameserver set.

I called my colleague and unfortunately is out until tomorrow. So I will post the syntax error tomorrow.

As my colleague a windows user I sent the command he had to enter via email so there would be no confusion.

thanks again to all for the help!!!