Snakeoil Networking

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 Configuration

This page allows you to customise your network settings.

This section is meant for audiophiles who understand the inner workings of networking. You will lose network connectivity if you make any mistake here. Although you can easily recover the mistake by accessing the local console - we advise to leave this settings alone.

Networking

Network Interfaces

This card will show all the Network Interface Card (NIC) detected by the operating system. Here you'd find the Linux driver (and version) for your NIC as well as it's MAC address.

Networking-status

This table provides some useful bits and information about the networking aspect of your computer. Highlighting possible areas for tweaking. Things of general interest are

  1. Interface Name. Gives you the name of the interface. In the above example, it's eth0.
  2. Driver. Tells you the Linux driver used for your network card. This entry basically identifies the network interface card on your machines.
  3. MAC, short for Media Access Control Address.  This is a unique identifier that is tied to your NIC. Useful if you want to assign a static IP address to your machine.
  4. MTU. Size of the largest network layer protocol data unit that can be communicated in a single network transaction. Anything bigger than 1500 is considered Jumbo Frames. To use this feature you need to connect your Snakeoil PC to a network switch that supports this feature, e.g. the HP ProCurve seen here.
  5. Version. Tells you the version of the Linux driver. Sometimes there are bugs/features in certain versions. This entry gives you the version number so you can pick the right kernel for your needs.
    Procurve - jumbo frames
    Tweak this figure to find the optimal size for your network. It is counter intuitive but it is not always the best to set it to the biggest (e.g. 9000 seen here). Setting this too large may actually slow down the performance of your network.

Network Configuration

Networking-config

This is where you can tweak the network configuration of your Snakeoil PC. As mentioned previously it is best to leave this to the defaults.

  1. Hostname. This is the name of your Snakeoil PC. Depending on your network configuration, your DHCP server (e.g. Internet Router) will add the hostname into it's DNS, allowing you to access this PC from your network simply by using the Hostname instead of the IP address. The hostname will also be used by Zeroconf/bonjour.
  2. Gateway. This field only shows up if you are using static. This is also known as the 'exit node' of your network. Any traffic that is not destined to your local network will be directed to this gateway IP. This is usually your Internet router.
  3. DNS. This field only shows up if you are using static. When using static IP addressing, you need to provide at least DNS server, else this Snakeoil PC will not be able to resolve names to access the Internet (e.g. You cannot connect to the Snakeoil OS update server to check for newer versions). You can use your ISP DNS server, or you can use public servers from Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloud Flare (1.1.1.1)

For each interface, you can specify one of three states - Disabled, DHCP or Static:

  1. Disabled. If you have more than one NIC, you can disable any unconnected network cards to speed up booting time. This may even improve the audio quality because you are freeing up system resources.
  2. DHCP. This enables the NIC. When your Snakeoil PC is first turned on, it will broadcast a special packet to your local network requesting for a IP address. This request will be answered by a DHCP server. This is usually your Internet router. This is the default setting because it minimises the chances of IP address conflicts in your network (e.g. two machines with the same IP address)
  3. Static. This enables the NIC. Use this if you like your Snakeoil PC to have a fixed IP address. The advantage of this is it speeds up boot up time (especially evident when you are using a slower computer), the second advantage is there will be no DHCP service running on your Snakeoil PC (freeing up your computer resources). The biggest disadvantage is maintainability and this greatly increases your odds of IP conflicts.

Static IP Addressing

  1. IPV4. This field only shows up when you select Static. Set the fixed IP address you like for your Snakeoil PC. Ensure the IP you use here is not already used elsewhere by other devices in your network. If you do have a conflict, simply identify the other device with the same IP and shut it down.
  2. Netmask. This field only shows up when you select Static. This is the netmask for your IP address (Class A, class B or class C). If you are using a Layer 3 switch manipulating this netmask can bring about many possibilities.

Notes

  1. VLAN or LACP are in the works but not supported at the moment. Anybody who wants these fast tracked please post a thread in the forums.
  2. Snakeoil OS do not support Wifi out of the box. In our experience Wifi simply degrades the audio. You can workaround this by:
    1. Connecting your Snakeoil PC to a wireless bridge or access point via Ethernet
    2. Request a customised kernel with your WIFI hardware, install WPASupplicant and manually configure Wifi from the console/shell.

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