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I tried to connect my two laptops using crossover LAN cable. They are are on the same WiFi with internet on addresses 192.168.0.xxx, but I want faster communication between them for my purposes.

I set one to address 172.16.0.1 with mask 255.255.255.252 (Windows 8.1) and the second one to 172.16.0.2 with the same mask (Fedora 22). The connection between them works fine for a while (tested with ping), but stops working after while. Then I observe this phenomenon with Wireshark.

Fedora 22 - 172.16.0.2

It keeps broadcasting ARP discovery packet and tries to know who has 172.16.0.1. No response seen on this machine.

Windows 8.1 - 172.16.0.1

I see the broadcast from 172.16.0.1, also I see the response to it, but there is a huge amount of MAC CTRL Pause packets coming from the other station. I have read on the Wikipedia, that this is sign of overwhelmed network.

I have just a basic knowledge of networks and I don't know how to fix this. I first thought it is a problem with routing, but it seems like something on link-layer. Would you please somehow help me? Any ideas?

EDIT: Routing table from Windows system

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0         On-link        172.16.0.1    266
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.0.1      192.168.0.8     25
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
       172.16.0.0  255.255.255.252         On-link        172.16.0.1    266
       172.16.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link        172.16.0.1    266
       172.16.0.3  255.255.255.255         On-link        172.16.0.1    266
      192.168.0.0    255.255.255.0         On-link       192.168.0.8    281
      192.168.0.8  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.0.8    281
    192.168.0.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.0.8    281
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link        172.16.0.1    266
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link       192.168.0.8    281
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link        172.16.0.1    266
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.0.8    281
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  Network Address          Netmask  Gateway Address  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0       172.16.0.1  Default
===========================================================================
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  • What is the routing table on the Windows system, once it stops working? Dec 5, 2015 at 8:45
  • There is no change in routing table before and after it stops working, but I edited my original post and added the routing table. Dec 5, 2015 at 14:53

1 Answer 1

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you've got them both on the same subnet (172.16.0.1 & .2, with mask 255.255.255.252), which works..

did you set the router/gateway for either one? you need to assign a gateway ('router') setting for each as well..

my normal mehtod for this is to set one systems IP in the gateway as well (ie.,in your situation, setting the machine with 172.16.0.1 as the gateway ip address on BOTH machines), because then BOTH machines will look at that machine for ip traffic...

and your mask doesn't have to be that tight--255.255.255.0 will work perfectly well...

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  • I haven't set gateway, but even after setting it and restarting both network interfaces, it has the same issue. Dec 5, 2015 at 5:25

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