Configuring Internet via LAN - first steps

[karo]

Hi!

I installed Knoppix yesterday on hd and it went surprinsingly smooth, considering this is my first try with linux.

Here are some very basic q's: I want to connect to the internet via LAN (works with XP) in my dormitory.

The information our network team provides includes:

IP, E-Mail adress, Subnet mask, IP-Gateway, DNS Server, POP3 Server, News Server but also a password and a name for the server to recognize me. It is written for WinXP, so it works easily there. My question is: How do I setup Knoppix with these information?

I tried from the launch bar: Knoppix -> Network/ Internet -> Network card configuration

It then asks me if it should try dhcp broadcasting, but that doesn't work.

Then I am asked for

1. IP (which I have)
2. Network mask (which I have)
*3. Braodcast adress (Not sure about that, is that the same as my IP? What should I type here?)
4. Gateway (which I have)
*5. Nameserver (What is that? What should I type here?)

I couln't solve points 3 and 5. Also there has to be a field where I type in my PC's name and password, so he can recognize me, right? Where do I do this?

Sorry for the lenghty post, but I tried to describe my difficulty as good as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I also have two bonus questions (please bear with me):
1. How do I disable automatic hardware detection while booting? Is there something similar to an autoexec.bat I have to edit? If so, where does the new entry belong to?

2. Is there something similar to a cisco client in linux? It would be great to have wireless internet in the library.

Thank you so much for your answers!
Karolina

[Harry Kuhman]

....Here are some very basic q's: I want to connect to the internet via LAN (works with XP) in my dormitory......

We don't know how your dorm is set up so this is a tricky question to answer (actually, tricky to answer properly, you'll likely get lots of answers). If your dorm uses DHCP to assign IP addresses and such to devices on the network, then you might just connect when you boot if you are plugged into the network at that time. If the "network team" manually provides you with the IP address and other information, but for some reason does not have DHCP running to assign it, then try running netcardconfig and manually filling in the information. You mention a user and password, but in the way that you said it I got the impression that this was only for the news server (although it likely should be for a mail server too). If you need the password to get on the network itself then there is more we need to know about (are you running any special software on the Xp system?) but if not then I expect Netcardconfig will be all that ou need, if even that.

A few more thoughts. I'm very impressed by the capabilities that the small inexpensive dsl/cable routers add to a network, and I would certainly consider adding one to your dorm setup. It should be able to either acept DHCP configuration or manually be configured to connect to the network (unless there's some XP only software involved for login), and then your Knoppix and/or Xp systems would connect to that with no setup needed on them at all. And it would give you an extra level of hardware firewall, an important consideration in a dorm. And don't trust your news server or e-mail passwords to be secure in the system as you described it, someone in that dorm may well be watching.

[green1]

My comments below your questions in this post.



I tried from the launch bar: Knoppix -> Network/ Internet -> Network card configuration
are you plugging a cable into your PC or trying wireless?

It then asks me if it should try dhcp broadcasting, but that doesn't work.
Again, physical cable for using the network or wireless?

Then I am asked for
*3. Braodcast adress (Not sure about that, is that the same as my IP? What should I type here?)
default broadcast is generally like this:
xxx.xxx.xxx.255 where xxx is the first three sets of numbers from your IP address
Example: If you have an IP address of 10.10.10.199 then your broadcast would be
10.10.10.255, if your network team used a default method

*5. Nameserver (What is that? What should I type here?)
you should be able to use your DNS server IP address for that

I also have two bonus questions (please bear with me):
1. How do I disable automatic hardware detection while booting? Is there something similar to an autoexec.bat I have to edit? If so, where does the new entry belong to?
Did you try failsafe at boot? It is one of the options when booting the LiveCD

2. Is there something similar to a cisco client in linux? It would be great to have wireless internet in the library.
Are you using the Cisco aironet or what? Wireless is very possible with Knoppix, but we need more information on what your hardware is:
USB, PCMCIA, cardbus, etc.