I have a headless mini computer with an Ethernet port, a Mac with a USB (not C) port, and a USB to Ethernet adaptor.
The mini computer is running standard CentOS Linux, and the eth interface is set to DHCP. The moment I connect the mini computer to a router via an Ethernet cable, it has access to the internet without any configuration.
The USB to Ethernet adaptor for my mac is also functional. I can connect it directly to the router and access the internet without configuration.
I would like to SSH into my mini computer over Ethernet, without needing the screen and keyboard, nor the intermediate router. However, I'm not getting any connectivity.
Do I need a cross-over Ethernet cable?
I know this is a very broad and ambigous question, but any pointers to what I could learn or investigate more about would be helpful.
11 Answer
You are very unlikely to need a cross-over cable these days. Most ethernet ports are 'smart' & can auto-switch if cross-over is needed.
At the moment, both machines are expecting to find a DHCP server to tell them 'who to be'. As neither machine is serving DHCP, this will lead to both machines setting up a private, essentially non-routable address in the range 169.254.x.x
This should, in theory, work - but as it doesn't appear to be, then...
The first step is to remove DHCP & set them manually.
Set one machine to 192.168.0.1 & the other to 192.168.0.2
Gateway is strictly unimportant, as there's nowhere for them to go, but gateway 192.168.0.1 & a subnet default of 255.255.255.0 should work.
They are then on the same, routable, subnet & ought to be able to find each other.
On the Mac you can do this via the Location: drop menu, in Prefs > Network > so you can in future switch on the fly without needing to reconfigure. On CentOS, idk how this would be achieved.
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