Cant connect to the internet

[simplyskate]

Hey guys,

Ive got the new Knoppix 3.8.1 Live CD and Im having a few problems connecting to the internet, ive got an NTL Broadband cable modem which is hooked up to an Actiontec wireless router. I tried to configure it but didnt have any luck, so i was wondering if maybe you guys could help me?

Someone did tell me to download a Linux driver for my NIC, but i checked on the Actiontec website and it appears that they do not do any for Linux... so i dont know what to do...

[Harry Kuhman]

....which is hooked up to an Actiontec wireless router. .......

Are you trying to connect through a wireless link or through a standard wired ethernet connection? If wired I'm surprised that you're having any problems. You might want to post what ifconfig is telling you, and you might try sudo mii-tool -r and then netcardconfig from a shell. If you're trying to get a wireles card working, well, good luck. I've found Linux supprt to be very poor for many of these cards. You might want to search the forums for other cards that have worked for people (they should still connect fine to your router). You might look for instructions for a "wrapper" that, in theory, might let you use windows drivers under Knoppix. But I would suggest trying to jack directly in with an ethernet cable first.

[simplyskate]

Um... im not quite sure what you meant, but, my modem is connected through ethernet to my wireless router, and the NIC is connected to a usb port and that is wireless too. I cannot connect my modem directly into my computer using ethernet because unfortunatly my computer does not have an ethernet port.

This is what showed up when i typed in "ifconfig";
"knoppix@1[knoppix]$ ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:400 (400.0 b) TX bytes:400 (400.0 b)"

When i put in "sudo mii-tool -r" it said;
"no MII interfaces found"

And when i did netcardconfig, it just said;
"no supported network cards found"

Any ideas on what i can do?

I'll also look up a wrapper now.

[Harry Kuhman]

Um... im not quite sure what you meant, but, my modem is connected through ethernet to my wireless router, and the NIC is connected to a usb port and that is wireless too. I cannot connect my modem directly into my computer using ethernet because unfortunatly my computer does not have an ethernet port.

Maybe I didn't make my question clear enough, but you answered it. You are trying to connect to the router wirelessly. Worse than that, you are trying to do it with a USB interface. There are people who have managed to get both USB and wireless connections to work under Knoppix, but many wireless adapter people keep their technology secret and do not release Linux drivers (fewer if any release the source code or protocol to talk to the devices), so getting a wireless adapter to work with Knoppix is a problem. Of the three wireless cards I have, I've only managet to get one to work with Knoppix and that was only with the new version 3.8.1. The other two are not recognized by Knoppix at all. And the card that is recognized doesn't work with all applications. And that's with a PCMCIA card, not a USB interface to add another level of problems.

You state that your computer doesn't have an ethernet port. If you have a free slot I would certainly consider adding an inexpensive ethernet card. Here in the US they are often available at $5 or less, sometimes free after rebate. I would expect the prices to be similar in the UK. That and a couple of pounds or euros for an ethernet cable should be all you need to get you up and working.

[simplyskate]

Okay cheers for the reply man. Do you think it might be easier to just disconnect my modem from the router and just plug it into the the computer via USB? If so could you tell me what i would have to do to try and set this up? If this doesnt work i will just do what you said and buy an ethernet card. Just a quick question, if i were to buy an ethernet card, would this act as my NIC? Also would i be able to get any ethernet card, or would i have to buy one which is made by my routers company?

[Harry Kuhman]

Do you think it might be easier to just disconnect my modem from the router and just plug it into the the computer via USB?

I generally have had very bad luck with Linux and USB devices (other than flash drives, which have worked very well for me). And I certainly would never advocate that someone with a router disconnect it and not use it, a router provides very important protection (even for Linux). So no, I would not advocate bypassing the router and trying to get a USB interface right into the modem to worik. If you insist on trying to get a USB interface to work it might as well be the wireless USB interface, if you are sucessful it will have a much better end result than getting a USB to modem interface working.

... If this doesnt work i will just do what you said and buy an ethernet card. Just a quick question, if i were to buy an ethernet card, would this act as my NIC? Also would i be able to get any ethernet card, or would i have to buy one which is made by my routers company?

NIC stands for Network Interface Card. So yes, an ethernet card is a NIC and it would be your NIC. Likely seen as eth0 from Knoppix assuming that Knoppix doesn't detect anything else that looks like an ethernet interface to it, but in any case Knoppix should detect it, set it up by DHCP from your router and the network will be up and working as soon as you boot, no extra commands should be needed.

You do not need a NIC made by your router maker. Virtually any common 10/100 ethernet interface will work. I can't say that Knoppix has support for every card made, but I know of none that cause problems. I've used cards from Dlink, SMC, Cnet, 3Com, and even Belkin and "generic" cards with no problems. Obviously you can't use an old style NIC with only a thinnet (coax) connection on it to connect to your twisted pair router, but these are extremely hard to find any more. You could use a very old 10 mbps only twisted pair interface (also so hard to find it's not worth considering unless you're picking used boards from old junk computers), it would work OK and there would be no apparent loss of speed on the internet, but such a card would be slower talking to any other computers on your local network. Some 1000 gig on-motherboard chipsets did cause problems for some users. This seems to be improving with newer releases, but my advice would be to avoid 10/100/1000 cards and I would expect that you would do fine (your router likely would not support the 1000 mbps anyway). Unfortunately, many makers change the basic chip sets they use and still keep the same model number for their cards, so it's hard to be 100% certain that any particular make and model of card is supported, but if you really want to play safe ask here about the card you intend to buy and someone is likely to confirm that they use it without problems. But if I were doing it I would just insert a generic card and expect it to work.

[simplyskate]

Okay first of all, i would like to say thanks for all this help you are giving me, you truly are a star. I think i am definatly going to go for an ethernet card now, i have one in mind, i will post it up here to see if people have used it tomorrow. But for now i have another problem, i think i might have "Mini PCI" slots, i was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me the measurements of the Mini PCI slots and normal PCI slots, so i can verify this.

Cheers,
Take Care,
Chad.

[Harry Kuhman]

... i think i might have "Mini PCI" slots, i was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me the measurements of the Mini PCI slots and normal PCI slots, so i can verify this.

Sorry, I don't have measurements handy, but you can likely find them with a quick Google search. If you have a notebook then you could well have a mini-pci slot. And it would be a problem even if you could find a card that would fit. You would be better of using a PCMCIA card (assuming the notebook has a pcmcia slot). It would be more expensive than a standard ethernet PCI NIC, but likelly less epensive than a mini-pci card (and the mini-pci card still leaves you the problem of routing the ethernet connector outside the case).

If you have a desktop then you likely have PCI slots, unless you have a very new computer with "PCI Express" (and if you did you wouikd likely still have some pci slots and an on-board NIC as well) or a very very old computer with only ISA slots (in which case, while you could find some used ISA NICs it would really be time to retire the computer). If you know the make and model of the computer, or the make and model of the motherboard that it uses, post that information and someone can likely tell you about the slot support. Or you can search the Internet with that information and get a good breakdown of slots on the motherboard. Google will find this information for you.

[simplyskate]

Hey, Okay i found out that i do have normal PCI slots, and i went out and bought an ethernet card. The one i bought was a Belkin. I will install it a bit later then come back and let you know if everything worked fine.

Cheers,
Chad.

[simplyskate]

Hey harry,

i'd just like to thank you for all the help that you have given me, i now have the internet on my knoppix boot cd up and running fine

Once again, Cheers,
Chad.