Setting up a server at school

[George Harrison]

Hello, I have been asked to set up a mysql server to host songs for a radio type of program at my high school. Someone came in and gave me a server boxen in class and now I must set it up. It's running an installed version of Knoppix (2.4.26 kernel) and I cannot for the life of me get a network connection. The entire school is on RJ-45 jacks so I plugged it into the box from a huge switch in the ceiling. I know this connection works because it was used on the Dell that I'm typing on which runs Windows 98. The problem lies in that the school district does not allow any boxes to be running on their network if it is not known as one of their IP addresses. I was informed by my teacher that I cannot go to the school district to ask if they will allow it because they are computer illiterate and wouldn't understand. I know what the problem is but I don't know what to do from here. There are two network cards but if I plug an ethernet cable in it sees nothing, I've been messing around with ifconfig for some time and I even installed dhcpcd from source because I cannot fetch it. I figure that if I can spoof a MAC address or spoof an IP address from one of the Dells on the network that I can do it. Any ideas or tips..? I'm really lost here and I need to get this server up now. Thanks.

[burnit]

dhcpd is not necessary (this is a dhcpd server).

To setup an IP address: ifconfig ethX 192.168.1.x

to setup MAC: ifconfig ethX hwaddr=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

[George Harrison]

hmm.. still won't work, I'll try pulling out of of the two NIC's and see if that will help. I also assigned eth0 with the IP address I found on the 98 box with Winipcfg. Does this mean that the Dell must be off for the Debian box to work? As in, the same IP cannot be used both at the same time. I'll keep trying, thanks.

[farslayer]

If I were admin in a school and I didn't want strange devices on my network I would implement 802.1x

what is 802.1x you ask ? well it's Port Based Network Acces Control. if I don't have the MAC address of the Network card in your PC in my database I will automatically shut down the port on the switch when you connect to it, and not allow you to send or recieve any traffic (other than 802.1x auth information) .

If this is the case the only way to get your machine connected is to place a request with IT.

knowing how inquisitive students are I wouldn't do it any other way.. call me paranoid or whatever, but you have to maintain control of your network to be able to manage it properly.