On Sun, 9 Nov 2003, Mikael <m.s.nystrom@comhem.se> wrote:
> Hi!
> I have problems getting a XP box up and running behind a NetBSD
> NAT/firewall. I isolated the problem to the time when the XP boots. If I
> boot the machine without the cable plugged into the switch, and after
> the boot is complete plugg it in again everything works well. But if I
> have the cable plugged in to the switch during boot, I'm unable to reach
> the network. I have a NetBSD and a Linux host behind the same
> NAT/firewall with no problems. What happens during XP boot that screw
> things up?

You're asking an XP question, and you've framed and XP test, if you'll
pardon my saying so.  "If I do this, XP does that" is pretty much the only
kind of testing you can do in that environment.  NetBSD gives you tools to
apply your intelligence.  

I don't know much about XP.  I think it begins by looking for a PDC or
something, and configures its networking according to what it discovers. 
When your box is disconnected at bootup, it may decide there's no network,
and revert to some default settings.  Whereas, if it's connected, it may
decide there *is* a network (active Ethernet attached) and decides to wait
for whatever it's supposed to find there.  Or not.  I really don't know.  

Are you using DHCP or static addresses?  Perhaps the XP box is waiting to
have its IP address set by the DHCP server?  "ipconfig /all" in XP will
show its status.  

Can you ping the XP box from NetBSD?  Vice versa?  

You can use tcpdump(8) in NetBSD to see the traffic on the wire.  Is the
XP box sending out arp packets or anything?  

Så många frågor, så kort tid.  Lycka till!  

--jkl