Problem connecting to network

[Override]

Hello, first of all im new here and new to linux.. i bought the o'reily book called Running Linux but it doesnt explain much on which ethernet cards are supported and how to configure it step by step.

anyway ive been having problems on connecting to the net with linux on ADSL, i was wondering that maybe my ethernet card isnt supported so i decided to post here for an answer.. My network adapter is an MSI/Broadcom 440x 1/100 intergrated controller and also my modem is a B-FoCus Multiport 342+ one. any info if its supported? (or am i posting wrong info :S?)

btw.. im not using my 56kmodem since i have a high speed connection which i already posted above, but my 56k modem is a Lucent Win Modem (yes i know that win modems arent supported) but does this have anything to do with me not being able to connect?

if u have any answer please share them.. the website for my ADSL Modem is http://www.inoviatele.com/Products_Hi/HiBFOCuS_342+.asp
apparantly it has a built in router and firewall.. need help!!! pls!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

PS:i used the ADSL/pppoe Configuration tool.. it finds an ethernet device at eth0 but it doesnt seem to be able to configure it or something..

heres a picture from what i get after i do ifconfig and run the net card configuration
http://www.geocities.com/frozenland3d/snapshot1.png

[Harry Kuhman]

I don't have any insight to share about your built-in NIC, hopefully someone else may join in who does. I can give a little insight on a few things though:

Your Winmodem being present in the system is not known to cause any network problems.

Having a built-in router is great, as long as it's really there, and enabled and set up properly. It should allow you to connect to the high speed connection with no setup at all in Knoppix (Knoppix gets all of it's setup information by DHCP). and you will not need to run or setup any PPPoE software. To confirm that the router is present and working, check the IP address of your computer in Windows. Don't go to an Internet site that gives you your address, check it in the networking section of the control panel, or even ping an address (such as ping knoppix.net at a command prompt) and it should show you the local IP address. If you see an address that begins with 192.168 or even one that fits the 10.xxx.xxx.xxx pattern, you are using a router. If you see alocal address that in your case begins with 81, then you are not using a router and should look into how to enable it in your modem.

This is not intended as an insult, but at least one person asked a lot of setup questions before we determined that his network connection was set-up and working fine. If you put a URL into the Konquror browser that comes up as Knoppix boots, you don't get to a website, right?

Knoppix support for on board NICs has improved a lot, particularly for 10/10o NICs, which is what I think you are saying you have, and even to some extent for 10/100/1000 NICs. You don't say what version of Knoppix yiou are using. Hopefully it is 4.0.2, but some people lately have shown up as new users with old versions like 3.4 that may well not support that hardware. If you have an old version of Knoppix I would suggest that you upgrade and I would suggest stating the Knoppix version whenever starting a threrad.

Also I'm assuming that you are running Knoppix from disc, and have not tried to "install" it to the hard disk, which often breaks networking.

[Override]

Thank you for answering Harry Kuhman.

well, my ip begins with 10.***.***.** so im guessing its using a router? and yes im running knoppix 4.0.2 from the CD, i havent tried to install it since i dont want to mess up anything on this hard drive until im sure the internet works. and also yes whenever i put a website url in konquror and it doesnt open it..

im really lost here about the internet.. have you got any more information?

Thank you again.

[Harry Kuhman]

I'm not sure what additional information I can provide you. With a 10.xxx.xxx.xxx address you must be using a router, as it is an address that is purely local and can't be routed over the Internet (the router translates it to your ISP assigned address for you, an 81.xxx.xxx.xxx address in your case; do a Google search on NAT for more info). You don't need or want to do any PPPoE setup, as the router takes care of PPPoE for you (you don't need to run PPoE software in Windows either). The ifconfig that you showed is showing the talkback address 127.0.0.1. This is basically a special address that means talk to myself, all tcp/ip stacks have it, you might want to look at man ifconfig for more options. It looks like network configuration is failing at boot time; but I have no insight on why. You may wish to try recording your settings in Windows and then running netcardconfig again, answer the dhcp question in the negative and then manually enter your settings. You shouldn't have to do this, but if it works it might shed some light on the problem. There are a few other commands like pump that I see others mention that they used to get a network connection started, but I really don't understand these as I have never had to use them. You have found the right forum though, if you dig around enough in old posts you are likely to come up with many commands to help you resolve this.

I don't know your circumsances or hardware availability and you really shouldn't have to do this, but if like me you have other network interface cards available, you might try pligging a standard 10/100 NIC into you motherboard, moving the network cable there and rebooting. Generic NICs are now dirt cheap, many places will sell you one for under $5, I've gotten many free. I don't know why Knoppix apparently isn't supporting the one on you motherboard, and I think it's likely that someone will come around here with advice that will help you get it going, but adding a simple NIC may be a quick and dirty fix to make the problem go away. This is assuming that the problem is Knoppix not supporting your on-board NIC, as opposed to some strange DHCP problem, so try the manual netcardconfig approach first.

If you need more information about the manual setup, use real numbers when posting IP settings. There is no security risk in posting an address such as 10.0.0.100 instead of 10.xxx.xxx.xxx, as it is a purely private address and can't be reached by others on the Internet, and it will be important for anyone helping you to see the real addresses, masks and such that you use as opposed to abstract numbers with lots of x's hiding information.

[jacksonon]

I am having the same problem, I have a Broadcom 440x modem in my laptop and it won't pick up an IP address. I've tried putting no at the DHCP broadcast and manually entering my info but I still have the problem. Maybe there is a problem with that particular modem in Linux. I am using Knoppix 3.6 and I was about to download 4 hoping it would be fixed but I guess I will wait.

[Harry Kuhman]

I am having the same problem, I have a Broadcom 440x modem in my laptop .....
What??? Override discribes the Broadcom device as a Ethernet NIC, not a modem. I didn't doubt him and do extensive Google research (no my job). But if it's a modem that's a whole different ball of wax. If it's a NIC then the real question is what is is connected to. In Override's case it was connected to an ADSL modem that has an internal router. If you are connecting to an router them I would also expect your system to work. If you are connecting to someting else you may need to do different things.

I'm having the same problem posts often don't get much attention, either because the problem is already being discussed and saying I'm having the same problem doesn't really add much or, more likely, because although one part of your system may match, it's unlikely that all parts do. For example, in this case unless you are connecting to the same ADSL modem with internal router it is unlikely that you have the same problem.

I'm still hoping that Override will post back. But one more thing either or both of you can do until that happens is to run ethereal and watch the DHCP handshaking as you run netcardconfig. Seeing the manner in which the handshaking fails may give us some insight on how to resolve this.

[Override]

oh im sorry.. i guess i was giving the right info but doing it the wrong way :shock: yes its an ADSL modem and yes it does have a built-in router..

[Harry Kuhman]

oh im sorry.. i guess i was giving the right info but doing it the wrong way :shock: yes its an ADSL modem and yes it does have a built-in router..
Yea, that is what I understood, my last post quoted Jacksonon and was to him, not you. I still have no idea why DHCP is failing or why a manual netcardconfig wouldn't let you force the settings yourself, and no idea what else you can do other than what I posted above.

[Harry Kuhman]

jacksonon indicates in another thread (http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22415) that Knoppix 4.0.2 solved his problem with is NIC. I don;t think we ever really learned what he was connecting to, but it certainly seems like a reasonable thing for you to try too.

[Override]

*sigh* ive tried quite a few linux distributions and ive had the same problem with no straight answer.. :(

[Override]

wait a sec.. i was right from the 1st post.. my ADSL modem is a B-FoCus Multiport 342+ and my network intergrated controller (NIC) is a Broadcom 440x 1/100

:shock:

http://www.geocities.com/sh4dowm4st3r/NIC.JPG

[jacksonon]

Mine says the samething except it doesnt have MSI infront. I use a router which shares a cable connection.

[Harry Kuhman]

wait a sec.. i was right from the 1st post.. my ADSL modem is a B-FoCus Multiport 342+ and my network intergrated controller (NIC) is a Broadcom 440x 1/100
I'm not questioning this at all; other than you keep calling it a 1/100 NIC rather than a 10/100 card. It was jacksonon who called the Broadcom 440x a modem, and I questioned his statement. I haven't done any research at all on the B-FoCus Multiport 342, but the fact that you see an ip address in the 10.xxx.xxx.xxx range confirms for me that it has a built in router (and the word multiport in the name is another big clue). I have no idea why DHCP seems to be failing, but in the one case where I did see DHCP fail with a router I was able to manually do the settings with netcardconfig and get the connection working. I don't know what is happening when you do this. Give us some feedback on exactly what setting you are entering and what error messages you get if you want and expect us to be able to give you feedback. I would also want to know if you can ping the router after the netcardconfig, and if you can ping other computers on the local network, and if you can ping the Knoppix IP address that you assigned from other local computers. And if nothing works I would suggest running ethereal and telling us what it captures during a netcardconfig with DHCP and also without.

[jacksonon]

im sorry about the modem confusion, its a 10/100 network card.

[Override]

I don't know what is happening when you do this. Give us some feedback on exactly what setting you are entering and what error messages you get if you want and expect us to be able to give you feedback. I would also want to know if you can ping the router after the netcardconfig, and if you can ping other computers on the local network, and if you can ping the Knoppix IP address that you assigned from other local computers. And if nothing works I would suggest running ethereal and telling us what it captures during a netcardconfig with DHCP and also without.

what do u mean when u say what setting i enter? i just ran the netcardconfig and it failed the DHCP, i never did try to setup anything.. :?

[Harry Kuhman]

what do u mean when u say what setting i enter? i just ran the netcardconfig and it failed the DHCP, i never did try to setup anything..
When you run netcardconfig there is a question about DHCP. If you answer in the affirmative it will try to do a DHCP configuration, which in your case seems to be failing. If instead you push the button that answers in the negative it will ask a set of setup questions like what IP address you wish to use, mask, broadcast address, DNS server and so on. I would suggest recording all of this information from that system when running Windows and then try going into Knoppix and using netcardconfig to set these values manually. It is a bit of a pain, but if it works you will be on the Internet and it will confirm that everything else is working fine and that the problem is that for some strange reason Knoppix and your router don't DHCP together properly (if it fails then the problem could be somewhere else, but we're not likely to find that until we make this determination).

I have seen DHCP handshake failure with one old Belkin router. I never did determine the exact cause, my fix was simply to use a different router that would handshake properly (although the manual netcardconfig worked too). Unfortunately, with the router built into the ADSL modem, using an alternate router may be more of a problem for you (unless there is a feature to disable the internal router. There very well may be, some router/modem combos have them, it's a very desirable feature that allows you to add a router with more features, such as wireless access).

[Override]

omg it works!!!!!!!!!!!! i tried it manually by doing the net card config without the DHCP broadcast and it works!!! thank harry kuhman!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D :D

[Harry Kuhman]

i tried it manually by doing the net card config without the DHCP broadcast and it works!!!
That confirms that it's an issue with the way the router does DHCP. You might waht to contact the router maker and see what they know (Belkin was just ignorant and flatly stated that they only support Windows). You might even find that a new firmware update addresses the DHCP problem for you. And do look to see if you can disable the router and add an external router (don't stack routers), routers have become very cheap.