How to run rcp over crossover cable on crude network configuration

[Scot L. Harris]

On Fri, 2005-08-12 at 19:59, lin q wrote:
> Hi,
>   I just installed Fedora Core 3 on my laptop and I selected network support 
> in installing. This laptop is basically used for me to try out Linux. I will 
> not use this laptop to connect to any network, the only use of its ethernet 
> connection is for me to transfer some big files to other machine. And I have 
> some problem here.
> 
>   I use a crossover cable to connect this laptop to my PC which is on my 
> employer network, this PC is running Windows XP. I have cygwin installed on 
> the PC.
> 
>   I name the laptop IP address as 1.2.3.4 when i installed Fedora, obviously 
> such address is not accessible from PC, so I run this command to add it to 
> the routing table of PC,
> 
> Route add 1.2.3.4 mask 255.255.255.255 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx metric 1 if 3
> 
> "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" is the PC gateway address.

If you are using a crossover cable between the PC and the laptop you
will need to configure an IP address on the PC in the same subnet you
used on the laptop.  In your example if the laptop is set to 1.2.3.4
with a 24 bit subnet mask then you could set the PC's IP address to
1.2.3.5 with a 24 bit subnet mask.  There should be no routing involved
since you are using a crossover cable.  

You will need to temporarily reconfigure the IP address on the PC to set
this up.

Since this is in effect an isolated network with only those two devices
connected security is should not be much of an issue.  As already
mentioned you will need to include the right packages for the r commands
to be included on the linux system.  Also remember you will need to
temporarily disable or open ports in iptables to get this to work.

If you were connecting the laptop to the LAN at work and letting the
laptop get an address via DHCP then using something other than rcp
should be considered.  If this is a one time transfer or occasional
transfer scp can be used between the two systems.  The putty package for
windows includes the program pscp which can be used to move files
between the windows system and linux systems in a secure manner.  cygwin
also includes ssh type utilities as well.