Yet another 'I can't connect' thread

[IronMonkeyL255]

First off, this is a wonderful source of info, and I have found it incredibly useful since I took it into my head that I wanted to learn Linux.

I can't figure out how to connect to the internet with my broadband connection.

Connection Type: Cable

Modem Brand: LinkSys
Modem Model: BEFCMU10

Router Brand: LinkSys
Router Model: WRT54G

It's hooked up through the onboard ethernet jack on my motherboard.

I can get KPPP to recognize my modem, but it just hangs up when 'initializing modem' when I try to connect.

Since it is a broadband connection, how do you get it to ignore the 'phone numbers' section. Since it doesn't need to dial, I am assuming you should be able to leave this blank, but I get an error if I do.

I do apologize if this has been asked, but I searched. All I could come up with was stuff about USB modems not working, and all the FAQS I read said NOTHING about hooking up through a broadband connection.

[rusty]

Since your using a dsl/cable modem your connection should be "always on", and dialing out is not necessary. The kppp program is for using a modem that is attached to your telephone line, not a cable modem.

Without going into a step by step troubleshooting guide or howto, it might be best to ask a few questions: How do you connect to the internet using windows? Have you tried just opening a browser in knoppix to see if the internet is working? Have you tried using the network configuration ustility? To access that click k-->knoppix-->network/internet-->network card configuration.

It might also be a good idea to post information about your pc's network card to see if it usually works with knoppix.

HTH

[Harry Kuhman]

Router Brand: LinkSys
Router Model: WRT54G

It's hooked up through the onboard ethernet jack on my motherboard.

I can get KPPP to recognize my modem, but it just hangs up when 'initializing modem' when I try to connect.

Since it is a broadband connection, how do you get it to ignore the 'phone numbers' section. Since it doesn't need to dial, I am assuming you should be able to leave this blank, but I get an error if I do.

I do apologize if this has been asked, but I searched. All I could come up with was stuff about USB modems not working, and all the FAQS I read said NOTHING about hooking up through a broadband connection.

You mostly found discussion about USB because that's where everyone has problems (no shock since usb and networking are such a bad mix). Ethernet, particularly with your setup, generally just works. Little if anything needs to be done so there isn't as much discussion. Still, there has been plenty discussed in the forums. Feel free to help out by adding what you feel belongs there to the wiki once you get things working.

With a router you don't need or want KPPP. As long as your motherboard NIC is recognized you should just be able to boot the CD and you'll be on the Internet (I'm assuming that you are booting from CD or DVD, if you choose to "install" Knoppix all bets are off.) Are you sure that you are not connected? We have gone over all of this before with another user only to find that they were connected all along. Try putting a URL in the Konquror window that opens when Knoppix boots and tell us what happens.

If you really are not connected it would help to know what motherboard you have to determine what nic chip set it supports. Also, do an ifconfig and post the results (a command entered at a shell prompt). Try a netcardconfig after booting and answer the DHCP question positive and tell us what happens. If all else fails you might be able to get connected by answering the netcardcionfig dhcp question no and manually setting up the connection parameters, but this should not have to be done.

[arabic58]

Randy here. arabic58. would like to weigh in on this guy's internet connection w/ cable modem.... 8:51am.

[Harry Kuhman]

Randy here. arabic58. would like to weigh in on this guy's internet connection w/ cable modem.... 8:51am.
Randy, yoiu look just like James. Quite confusing. Thanks for the time report, but what's your point? And he doesn't have a cable modem, he has DSL:, although with the router that shouldn't matter.

[arabic58]

1st. lets get some things straight. I am doing this from a Knoppix v 4.0.2 booted to a P-4, 1.5GB ram,w/ a 10GB HD, w/winxp-pro NTFS partation @ /dev/hda1, a 1gb USB stick @/ dev/sda1, a 20GB usb drv @ /dev/sdb1, listening to (XmmS) Nirvana-smells like teen spirit from a 128MB USB at /dev/sdc1. DSL internert connection. behind a bridged busy box router, linux 2.4.x, w/firewall & IDS on linux 2.4.x, going through a cisco switch.
I think your problem is easy.

1) NIC card in your machine needs two things. IP assigned from the cable modem ISP.????? and Netbios name your cable service was set up with from the cable modem ISP.????

[arabic58]

I had a CABLE modem connection several years ago. I set it up to a linux fire wall I built into a old compaq desk pro with 2 NIC cards. The cable modem ISP NIC needs to have twio things to work. IP from the Cable modem ISP, DSL has to be the same. The Cable modem was 1st set up on a win95 box. then I moved it to the linux box. took me several days to realize that the authentication method was two fold, DHCP IP address from the Cable modem ISP and then original netbios machine name when the service was firsty set up and working by the Cable modem ISP tech.

[Harry Kuhman]

1) NIC card in your machine needs two things. IP assigned from the cable modem ISP.????? and Netbios name your cable service was set up with from the cable modem ISP.????
Randy, notice that he has a Linksys router. He will get a local private non-routable NAT ip address. And his router will talk to the DSL (not cable) ISP; his Knoppix system does not need a name. He is also likely not going to be using Netbios at all, just IP protocol.

[arabic58]

If he has a DSSL connection from SBC in the USA,????, then is his NIC card up and working???. Can he go to the bash prompt and run this command ( sbin/ifconfig) and get the current state of hios NIC cartd.????? If not that needs to be fixed first. If he can?????? then the NIC card has to have a IP address from the ISP. CABLE or DSL ISP.

My internet facing NIC card has a ip address of 216.x,x.66, with the correct subnet mask from the DSL ISP. Mine is static and his will proabally be dynamic.

He can prove that he is setup right by doing a ping on a public URL from the bash prompt.
# ping www.cisco.com or ping www.yahoo.com.

Machine boots and the NIC is auto set up when it has a good connection to a good DHCP server, DSL ISP.
IF machione does not auto get @ boot an IP address. then use the (circleK) KDE start, knoppix, network/internet, network card conguration, and let it auto get an IP address.
then do a ping . www.cisco.com.

[arabic58]

As he has the Linksys thing in trhere. it looks like set up is ,internet,DSL ISP, bridge, Link sys, his computer. The bridge is translating the telephoine wire line signal to a TCP/IP network line. he needs to give the specifics of the actual connections.

Telephone wire out of the wall connected to what? Bridge, Linksys, or machine?

[arabic58]

Thank you for not castigating me for rambling too much. Reading through his original post again., and again. He has a DSL ISP bridge piece of hard ware from the telephone wire out of the wall and then, he has a linksys combination router, firewall and 4 port switch. ?????

Do this. From a web browser Log into the linksys router. Check the settings in the router,Linksys, make sure the router has a good IP from the DSL ISP, and then PING at the router, or ping from the router, or go to the section in the router set up where it says to test internet connection and it has the ability to send a ping to an IP address.

The Link sys is either getting a good IP address or not.????? The Links sys has five ethernet ports on ii's back. LAN (4x) and one WAN. the WAN is connected to the DSL ISP bridge. Some people call it a modem or a router it is not. It is best to not use the wireless part first until the DSL ISP connection is set up and working. Do a hardwaired connection to the linksys.

I know that once you do it correctly one time you will see as I do how easy it is.

The linksys in question has a status page??????
Check it to see if the IP addres from the DSL ISP is good.????????????

[OErjan]

ok, you have a router, many (could even say "most consumer model") routers have DHCP as default, this sets the network up all by itself.
So the question is, have you tried to type a web adress in the first window that appears when starting knoppix?
that is a web browser and perhaps you are overcomplicating things:-).
have you typed
ifconfig in a console window (icon of a computerscreen), that is equivalen to ipconfig /all in a win comandprompt, oh, ifconfig is NOT misspelled.

if you have, hmm, what do you do in windows? what does
ipconfig /all say in windows?
if it is something like 10.0.0.XXX or 192.168.X.XXX we are a good part of the way (please put whole adress here, it is not acessible from internet).
some small things
have you tried to do netcardconfig in linux?

[IronMonkeyL255]

To answer a few questions:

I am running a cable connection, not a DSL.

I have tried just typing in an address into Firefox and Konquerer, but no dice.

I am running it from cd, b/c my ISP keeps cutting off my connection while trying to download the DVD.

I haven't yet tried the network card config thing in Linux yet. I will try that shortly.

The reason I mentioned KPPP is because the only FAQ I could find mentioned using this to get connected.

Thank you all for your overwhelming useful information. Hopefully I won't have quite so many dumb questions once I can work on Linux AND look around online at the same time.

I will now go try the NCC and report back here.

[arabic58]

Dear Mr. Munkey. Don't worry about the dumb questions,??????. You are where I was 4 years ago, but was too dumb to go to this forum and get help. I know you can get it working. I did, so can you.

The NCC thing as you say is a good place to check.

[IronMonkeyL255]

Ok.

That didn't work, but it seems like it's just from my not understanding.

When I tried using a DHCP broadcast from eth0 or eth1, it would simply say 'Operation Failed'. This confuses me because I have DHCP turned on in my router settings.

I tried doing it manually, but it doesn't seem to like me. I figure this is because I'm using the wrong IP addresses in the wrong places.

Information it's asking for:

IP Address for eth0
Network MMask for eth0
Broadcast Address for eth0
Default Gateway
Nameserver

Information I have:

Router IP Address
Router Subnet Mask
Network Address Server Settings (DHCP) Starting IP Address
Internet IP Address
Internet Subnet Mask
Default Gateway
DNS1
DNS2

Now Default Gateway is rather obvious, as is DNS = Nameserver, but which IP addresses does it want prior to that?

[Harry Kuhman]

I am running a cable connection, not a DSL.
Opps, my error there. What hapens when I try to follow several threads on similar subjects early in the morning. To revise my advice:
You still don't need KPPP.
You don't need or want any PPPoE software either.
Your router should be taking care of this by DHCP, I don't know why it isn't
If by any chance you have a feature in the router that limits access by MAC address, disable that feature for now.

I have tried just typing in an address into Firefox and Konquerer, but no dice.
Strange, with a router this usually is all you need. You might want to try to ping 216.32.81.146
from a shell and see what happens. More importantly, ping (from a command shell) the router itself, usuall 192.168.xxx.1 where xxx is 0, 1 or 2 (1 for Linksys if I remember right but don't count on that).


I am running it from cd, b/c my ISP keeps cutting off my connection while trying to download the DVD.
There are a lot of reasons for downloading the DVD with BitTorrent rather than from a mirror. One key issue is that there is a problem that frequentlly corrupts Knoppix mirror downloads. Another is that BitTorrent tends to be faster. But the one worth mentioning here is that BitTorrent will let you restart the connection and continue on, retaining what was already downloaded.

The DVD and CD will connect in exactly the same way, so not using the DVD is unrelated.


I haven't yet tried the network card config thing in Linux yet. I will try that shortly.
That is a likely source of a fix if for some reason the router isn't setting Knoppix up by DHCP properly, but it would be nice to know why the router isn't setting up the NIC by DHCP.


The reason I mentioned KPPP is because the only FAQ I could find mentioned using this to get connected.
Yea, but it's strictly a modem thing. Feel free to pitch in and help improve our wiki when you get things working.


Thank you all for your overwhelming useful information. Hopefully I won't have quite so many dumb questions once I can work on Linux AND look around online at the same time.
Your questions were not dumb and (unlike many users) you actually provided some important information n your first post; I just misread it.

[IronMonkeyL255]

I was using BitTorrent for the DVD. It was kinda funny and frustrating, as all I had to do to get it to work again is power cycle the modem.

And yes, it is 192.168.1.1 for my Linksys router.

[arabic58]

try this.
==============
That didn't work, but it seems like it's just from my not understanding.

When I tried using a DHCP broadcast from eth0 or eth1, it would simply say 'Operation Failed'. This confuses me because I have DHCP turned on in my router settings.

I tried doing it manually, but it doesn't seem to like me. I figure this is because I'm using the wrong IP addresses in the wrong places.

Information it's asking for:

IP Address for eth0
Network MMask for eth0
Broadcast Address for eth0
Default Gateway
Nameserver

Information I have:

Router IP Address
Router Subnet Mask
Network Address Server Settings (DHCP) Starting IP Address
Internet IP Address
Internet Subnet Mask
Default Gateway
DNS1
DNS2

Now Default Gateway is rather obvious, as is DNS = Nameserver, but which IP addresses does it want prior to that?
==================////////======
IP Address for eth0
Network MMask for eth0
Broadcast Address for eth0
Default Gateway
Nameserver................... DHCP for the linksys is pushing out an IP for anyone that will listen.
The knoppix OS is saying you have a NIC card and it can see it. if you do not have a NIC then you get no network adapter found. that is the mesg. You got 'Operation Failed'. What that says is the NIC card you have , did not get an Ip from the DHCP. this is good.

Lets give the NIC card an IP? when you run the NCC then next time instead of yes to auto get DHCP, click no "No" button.

then..... put these in.........
IP Address for eth0..................192.168.1.100
Network MMask for eth0.........255.255.255.0
Broadcast Address for eth0....192.168.1.254......mostlikely it will have this in there already, don't change it.
Default Gateway.......................192.168.1.1
Nameserver................................192.168. 1.1...................
These are the 1st IP address for the default DHCP range on a Linksys router.
Put these in to the questions. then and the bash prompt. ( click on the black, gray,white icon in the tool bar, next the orange house)
on my machine a black screen appears and has one line..........knoppix@{knoppix}$.................. ........
type "cd /" "return/enter/key"nothing else...........
type "sbin/ifconfig" ..........."return/enter/key" nothing else................
what do you see???????
you should see that eth0 has the information that you just put in...............

[arabic58]

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:02:E3:37:0B:3D
inet addr:10.43.86.81 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::202:e3ff:fe37:b3d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:24813 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:27285 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:19216253 (18.3 MiB) TX bytes:6277976 (5.9 MiB)
Interrupt:20 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1607 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1607 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:169800 (165.8 KiB) TX bytes:169800 (165.8 KiB)
======================///////////////////================
Here is a sample of my out put when I do the bash prompt......................
Knoppix is wonderful in that it let me copy this with out any effort. When you get it working , as I know you will, I think you will love it even more.

You can see how my NIC card is set up.

[rusty]

I'm still not sure your eth0 is being seen by knoppix, from a root shell type: ifconfig, and see if there is indeed a entry for eth0.

Also what is your pc setup, motherboard, network card etc. The dsl modem and router may be working fine, knoppix might be having trouble getting your network card to work beacause it hasnt the right driver loaded for it.