Odd Problems setting up RS6000 on TCP/IP network

[Dana Roode]

We had an IBM RS/6000 on loan for awhile - 9013S1 came while it was
here and I installed it.  The TCP/IP configuration menus in SMIT worked
fine, and I got all the right tcp/ip parameters set for our network.

One of our faculty has now taken delivery of the first purchased RS6000 on
campus - it occurs to me now I dont know what O/S version he has,
but it's whatever IBM is shipping.  I went over to get the network
setup using SMIT.  I used the "minimal (basic?) setup" option under the
communications menu (my memory is a little fuzzy) and ran through
the menu that sets hostname, netmask, static routes, etc..  Everything was
obvious except for the name of the interface.  IBM calls "en0"
"standard ethernet" and "et0" "IEEE 802.3 ethernet" - Im not sure
what I want as I thought 802.3 was "Standard".  To add to my confusion,
whenever I make a change to either interface it says "inet0" changed,
and the /dev/xxx file has still a different name.

What is the correct interface to use?

I ended up deleting en0 after it would not work (using SMIT), and
started over using et0.  Still didnt work.  I noticed that all my
routes (as per netstat -n -r) where going through the loopback
interface lo0 and that "ifconfig lo0" reported the loopback address
was set not to 127.0.0.1 but to the host ip address.  No wonder things
were not working, all routing was through the loopback, or so it seems.

I manually reset lo0 and got the network working to a single system
on the connected subnet, but it refused to work to any other system
on that subnet.

How can I start over and do the configuration right?  Can someone
explain how this all works?  (I have managed Unix system for years
and on most others getting the initial ifconfig correct in rc.whatever
as well as a route command or two is all that is ever needed to make
the system work).


		Dana Roode
		UC Irvine
		DRoode at UCI.EDU, Bitnet: DRoode at UCI