IP Networking

1. the crossover cable MUST be connected directly from NIC to NIC

2. when you connect to your ISP (when you dial out) you might receive a DHCP address (which is not 192.168.x.x).
*solution* from Linux- give your NIC a static IP address using the ifconfig command (192.168.0.1)
from Windows- give it a static IP of 192.168.0.2 FOR THE NIC THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE CROSSOVER

3. you don't need DNS addresses or gateway address for this configuration

4. Understand that if you give these machines these addresses, you will not be able to connect to the internet AT ALL

5. I don't think you actually connected to your ISP when you launched Netscape (i think it was just the dial-tone that fooled ya')

6. try pinging YOUR OWN IP. (i.e. if your at your Linux box, ping 192.168.0.1) if that times out, you have a hardware problem most likely.

7. when both machines can ping eachother, you might be able to telnet to Linux: if not, check out RedHat's website and find configuring telnet RedHat 7.2

8. good luck and post again

Network diagnostic starts from lower layers to upper layers.
1. Ckeck connectivity [is there link between your computers]?
2. Check data link layer [C:\arp -a on win32 or # arp -a -n on .nix/linux]
3. Check network layer [ping remote_computer] - is there "network unreachable"? "request timeout"? is there a firewall active on any of these computers? Some people says that RH7.2 comes with the firewall enabled by default
Good luck!

yeah if you're running them peer then you don't need a gateway this is problem where your problem lies because the information is being sent to a gateway address that doesn't exist
ip address and the subnet mask should be all you need for these two computers to comm.
if you're gonna use a gateway address the you need a gateway like a router or another box with two nics

PLease forgive me if someone has already said this....

easyiest way (in my opinion)

Hook your modem to your Windows box (if it's 2k enable internet sharing)

In the TCP/IP properties
set IP 192.168.240.1 (or something)
mask 255.255.255.0
thanks it.

On your linix box useing a crossover cable (from one NIC to another)
Set IP 192.168.240.2
mask 255.255.255.0
default gateway 192.168.240.1

That should get the boxes seeing each other. All you should need to do from there is assign DNS for the Linux box to have internet access.