Thanks to all who responded about this, most of you got it right.
netmask on the sparcs 'wren' & 'swift' was set wrong (255.255.255.0).
The real problem here was as follows.
The yp master 'eagle' had been up for about 8 weeks, the last
time eagle was booted, it was configured with a netmask 255.255.255.0
because I was experimenting with sub-netting. However, I change
the netmask back to 255.255.0.0 but DID NOT reboot the machine,
it seems that although I had changed the netmask, the interface
was still behaving as if the mask was 255.255.255.0. This led
me to a false sense of security, since the sparcs wren & swift
booted-up fine even though they're netmask was 255.255.255.0 .
So after the ypserver was booted on Tuesday the interface ie0
reflected the true netmask 255.255.0.0 which was incompatable
with the value set on the sparcs.
What I'm trying to say here is ONLY the first 'ifconfig' command
sets up the interface, subsequent ifconfigs seem to have no
effect on the physical state of the interface even though it
may seem as if it has.
Perhaps someone could verify this to me.
Thanks again for the superb responses.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Andrew Mellanby email <mel@uk.ac.abdn.cs> |
|Computer Officer phone (+44 224) 272307 |
|Dept.of Computing Science Fax (+44 224) 487048 |
|University of Aberdeen |
|King's College |
|Aberdeen AB9 2UB |
|Scotland UK |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
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