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Thread ID: 37103	2003-08-28 12:55:00	486dx boot problems // Smoothwall firewall - help !!!	PoWa (203)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
171239	2003-08-28 12:55:00	Hi all, I recently replaced the motherboard on my 386 to a 486dx2 because smoothwall wouldn't properly on the 386. Hopefully I've gained a bit of speed with the upgrade. :) Anyway so I've kept all the components from the 386 and used the with the 486 motherboard. So that means I've got one big card in it, which has the hard drive and floppy controller plus a whole host of other things, another big card which has soundblaster sound and an ide controller for the cd-rom. Its also got 8megs of ram, a 512mb hard drive, a floppy drive, and a 4x cdrom. Anyway after a few problems with getting the hard drive detected properly (I had the wrong cable in and upside down etc), I boot up the machine (boot order A:, C:) and then it won't like anything in the floppy drive. I get this error: DRIVE NOT READY ERROR Insert BOOT diskette in A: Press any key when ready. I'm pretty sure I stuck in a valid boot disk - I've tried winME boot disk and a mandrake Linux 9 boot disk. Neither work, so I'm wondering what the heck is wrong. Any ideas people? Once I've got that going is there anyone out there that can help me with smoothwall :)	PoWa (203)
171240	2003-08-28 13:20:00	Does the floppy drive do the customary clunky read before it throws that error? Make sure the powers on the drive, and the floppys cable is connected to the motherboard.	rsnic (3780)
171241	2003-08-28 13:33:00	No it doesn't go grrgrggrgr and then give the error. It tries to detect it and then gives the error. No sound really.	PoWa (203)
171242	2003-08-28 14:01:00	Hi PoWa, You might want to check that you have the power connector on correctly, but it is quite possible that the floppy drive cable is around the wrong way. A smoothwall installation is fairly easy. Basically just ensure that you have your NIC and external modem installed prior to setting up the firewall. Then you can configure it to have a "Green" interface and a "Red" interface as modem. If you are using more (ie three) NIC's you can have a "Green" for local, a "Orange" for the DMZ (where the Http Server goes) and the "Red" which is where the internet is. Hope this solves your prob :)	Gorela (901)
171243	2003-08-28 15:32:00	I'll check the power cable on the back of the floppy, I honestly think I can't put it in any other way, it won't fit. As for the connectors, I've tried them upside down as well :-\ I'll give it another go later today. As for smoothwall it gets a little complicated. I have an external Dynalink RTA300 ADSL router with 4 port switch. From each of those ports there are 3 computers connected to it, via ethernet. Theres only one port left to connect to the smoothwall box. I'm unsure as whether to make the internet traffic travel through the phone line -> to the router -> then to the smoothwall box -> then to the pc's. or make each of the pc's use the smoothwall as a gateway or proxy or something. I think its a bit too slow for a gateway right? lan traffic would crawl. How could you only make all internet traffic go through the smoothwall box before going on to my router. Red/green/yellow interface things still confuse me at this stage :)	PoWa (203)
171244	2003-08-28 16:15:00	Hi Powa, First of all download and read the smoothwall documentation: . org/docs/" target="_blank">smoothwall . org having done so you may understand a bit more . Secondly, here is probably not the best place to be asking smoothwall related questions, no offence to pressf1 but you'd be better off getting support from the actual smoothwall forum: . smoothwall . org/forum/" target="_blank">community . smoothwall . org >>So that means I've got one big card in it, which has the hard drive and >>floppy controller . . . Ummm does your 486 mobo not have onboard controllers? Because that card there is probably what's causing your problem >>You might want to check that you have the power connector on correctly, >>but it is quite possible that the floppy drive cable is around the wrong way . If the power is in and the data cable is in the wrong way, the LED will stay on . What you want to do powa is go into the pc's bios and check the settings that apply to the floppy drive itself . Have you told the bios that a fdd is existent (1 . 44mb 3 . 5")? is swap floppy disabled? is detect floppy enabled? is the floppy controller itself enabled? is it assigned resources? can you set the computer to stop on all errors? (it will stop if it's told there is a floppy drive but doesnt detect it) Are you sure the boot order is A, C? because that error response happens as well if there is a problem accessing the hard drive (so it might be trying to access the hard drive instead of the fdd, not finding an os and then shooting that error back at you) By the sounds of it, it's a basic hardware problem, and of course 386/486 era pc's are a real joy </sarcasm> to troubleshoot . Personally I'm of the belief that you should be running smoothwall on ATX standard equipment that supports booting a CDRom . But that's another rant altogether . I'd recommend you look at moving up one level to a Pentium MMX, 166mhz or above, on an ATX mobo with SDRam slots (which can be found reasonably cheaply on tardme . . . errr . . . trademe) . . You'll have a far easier time with setup and reliability, as has always been my experience in 3 years of setting up smoothwall rigs . Also for the least painful experience with NICs, get those DSE cheapies . . I had some sitting on my shelf that refused to work under win32, but they've been going strong in my smoothwall box for half a year now . The more ram the merrier too, 8megs will run but 32 will run so much better . My smoothie has 128megs of ram in it and thats completely overkill . The more ram you have, the better chance you have of being able to run all the features, with 8megs you're going to have to strip it way back, so aim for 32 minimum, 64 preferred, 128megs if you happen to have heaps of ram lying around like I do . . . but back on track: >As for smoothwall it gets a little complicated . I have an external Dynalink >>RTA300 ADSL router with 4 port switch . From each of those ports there >>are 3 computers connected to it, via ethernet . Theres only one port left >>to connect to the smoothwall box . You can plug the smoothwall box into the router and then it's all IP based, but it'd make a bit more sense to purchase a seperate switch (~$80 for a decent 8port) and have it setup as [internet - router - smoothwall - switch - your network] At the end of the day it's all IP based, but doing it your way can get complicated and resource intensive, especially at load times . Having your own switch provides upgradeability for your network (eg other people can come along and plug in, whereas running solely off your router pretty much eliminates that opportunity) >>or make each of the pc's use the smoothwall as a gateway or proxy or >>something . I think its a bit too slow for a gateway right? lan traffic would >>crawl . How could you only make all internet traffic go through the >>smoothwall box before going on to my router . Ummm the entire point of a smoothwall box is to act as a gateway . A gateway that does firewall and proxy/cache tasks . If you think it'll be too slow as a gateway, then dont bother using it as it'll be fairly redundant . As I said earlier, it's all IP address based, so long as your workstations point to the smoothwall box as gateway, and the smoothwall box points to the router as its gateway, it should work . >>Red/green/yellow interface things still confuse me at this stage If you had read the documentation you will understand this point . Right now it appears that you dont know exactly why you want a smoothwall box, you dont know how to impliment it correctly . . . you just know that you want one because captain netguide on pressf1 has one . Sounds like a typical kiwi male to me . . playing with things before reading the instruction manual ;) Basically smoothwall seperates traffic into networks, and for simplicities sake they've colour co-ordinated those networks . You've got your red network, or untrusted zone . This is anywhere between the smoothwall and the big bad internet . So the internet, your ISP, your router, and all the way back through that cat5 to your red interface is the red network . Then you have the smoothwall box, data comes in, is processed as defined by your configuration and is either bounced(refused) or routed to the correct destination . You've got your green network, or trusted zone . This is where your internal network resides, be it a sole workstation or a campus of workstations . Then if you have servers that need access to the internet, say a http, ftp or games server, you dont want that on your green network as you would have to pinhole ports from the red network to the green network, this means james . script . kiddy can crack through those open ports and bring your green network to its knees, which ultimately defies the point of having the smoothie in the first place . So this is where the orange network, or demilitiarised zone (DMZ) comes in . Servers are placed on the DMZ and can be accessed from the green network, but they CANNOT access the green network . The red network can access the DMZ on the ports you specify to be open for the DMZ . What this means is if someone has malicious intent against you, they could crack in, but they wouldnt be able to get into your green network, at most they'd get onto your DMZ and damage your servers . Any good admin will have his/her servers regularly backed up, so its a minor inconvenience to set the servers back up . Compare this to repairing a campus of dead workstations and suddenly you can see why the DMZ is such a smart idea . Anyways, good luck with sorting your problem out, I hope I have aided and englightened, but my biggest piece of advice would be: Research, research, research . A lot of your answers can be found in the documentation or already on the smoothwall forums, further answers can usually be found on the better end of a google search . :)	whetu (237)
171245	2003-08-28 23:44:00	>>Personally I'm of the belief that you should be running smoothwall on ATX standard equipment that supports booting a CDRom. I run Smoothwall on a 486DX4-100 AT PC and its fine. It doesn't even have a cdrom (well it did when I installed Smoothwall but once its running I don't need to touch it and I administer it remotely). Maybe ATX based PC's are younger and therefore more reliable but if my AT throws in the towel, I have other bits at hand. The only possible improvement I could make is a faster hard disk if I am running the web proxy, it can go slightly slower with it running (at times!)	Dolby Digital (160)
171246	2003-08-28 23:46:00	Do you have a spare floppy drive. Maybe the drive is on the blink.	Dolby Digital (160)
171247	2003-08-29 02:34:00	Boot BIOS code is pretty good at finding floppy drives. I'd unplug the Soundblaster card first, and try without that first. It could be grabbing interrupts you need ,and even the I/O port for the main IDE controller. Was that card on the 386? Have you got the floppy on the right part of the twisted cable? :D A DX/2 is a lovely processor. As long as you don't try running a GUI on it, it will handle huge amounts of network stuff.	Graham L (2)
171248	2003-08-29 02:35:00	Boot BIOS code is pretty good at finding floppy drives. I'd unplug the Soundblaster card first, and try without that first. It could be grabbing interrupts you need ,and even the I/O port for the main IDE controller. Was that card on the 386? Have you got the floppy on the right part of the twisted cable? :D A DX/2 is a lovely processor. As long as you don't try running a GUI on it, it will handle huge amounts of network stuff.	Graham L (2)
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