Can't connect to the internet....

I downloaded and ran the livecd earlier today, and everything works great...but I can't connect to the internet. No IRC, IM, or web browsing. I'm completely new to linux, so I looked through a few other topics for help, and I saw someone mention that when typing "ifconfig" into the terminal, you should see that eth0 has an IP address. On mine, eth1 has an IP address, and eth0 doesn't show up there, though it does show up when I use "sudo netcardconfig". I'm guessing that eth0 might be my wireless ethernet, since I have the switch for it turned off right now (not near my wireless network). If that is true, is it because my wired ethernet is on eth1 and not eth0 that it doesn't work, and if so - how can I change that?

If I'm way off base on everything, let me know. I just need some help.

You should be able to connect through eth1. In fact it will be a lot simpler getting the wired link working than the wireless one.

What people need to know to be able to help you is what you are connecting to. For example, if you are connecting to a router with DHCP services, Knoppix should have been able to get all it's configuration information from that and would just be up and running. If no DHCP sever is available then you might have to run netcardconfig and manually input the rquired information (which you may need to get from the service provider). If you are running on a DSL connection without a router then you may need to run PPPoE software to send the right type packets to your DSL provider and to log in (bad idea to run DSL without a router though, get a cheap router). So try any of the above if they apply or tell people what you're trying to jack into.

Hi Harry,
When I shut my pc down last night everything was ok except for a crazy mouse problem I've been having since I started playing with kanotix/knoppix. I booted up the live CD today and I can't connect to the net. This happens with kanotix or knoppix. I'm in windoze now so I can post this so I don't think its a hardware problem. What can I check while knoppix is running to troubleshoot this? I'm using a thinkpad r31 and I do have a router. Knoppix says eth0 is wireless and eth1 is nic while kanotix says that eth0 is nic and eth1 is wireless. I haven't tried to get the wireless working yet. I did try the noapic cheatcode to see if it cured the mouse deal. I wonder if that did something? I'm going to run ifconfig and see if there is a addy for my machine.

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Originally Posted by harryhood

.... What can I check while knoppix is running to troubleshoot this? .....

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I do not know what it is. ifconfig might give you some insight. You could try resetting the NIC (eth0 or eth1 depending on the CD) with mii-tool (as su, or prefix the command with sudo) and then do a netcardconfig again. You didn't say what make and model router. Yes, it matters. If it's a Belkin, well my experience with one was that it wouldn't do dhcp properly, others have confirmed that they see this too. On some other brands there may be a feature that lets you limit access by MAC address. If this is on turn it off and try again; there are some strange reports of the same hardware showing different MAC addresses when run on Win and Linux! Good Luck.

Hi Harry,

Thanks for the quick reply. I rebooted my Netgear FR314 and everything is back to normal. I guess is was messing up when doing the DHCP? I love learning Linux and would totally convert except I need AutoCad and on this laptop the mouse has a mind of its own sometimes :x

Okay. I'm on a cable connection going through a switch, not a router. No routing on it. I ran netcardconfig and it seemed to configure eth1 just fine all by itself when I said that it could use DHCP, but I still can't connect. Does that help?

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Originally Posted by calathar

Okay. I'm on a cable connection going through a switch, not a router. No routing on it. I ran netcardconfig and it seemed to configure eth1 just fine all by itself when I said that it could use DHCP, but I still can't connect. Does that help?

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That you have a switch and no router is a bit non-standard. It might be helpful to explain what you are trying to do with the switch. Is there any DHCP server connected to the switch? If you have cable but no router you generally get assigned an IP address by DHCP from the cable company. This sets your IP address to a routable IP address on the cable company network and eventually to the Internet. Generally most cable companies will not let a user have more than one routable address on the connection, so what else is connected to the switch and what IP addresses (and net masks) are assigned to each computer on the network?

I would suggest that you get an router (often $10 or less after rebate). That way you can build a local network with local addresses and all of your systems can share the network connection through NAT. The hardware firewall provided by a router will also help protect the local systems, particularly if any run Windows. If you have more systems than will plug directly into the router then you can still make use of the switch.

I'm assuming that since you have a switch that you have other computers in a local network. If any are providing DHCP services this could cause conflicts. If you are configured so the systems can communicate with each other you might have IP address problems getting to the cable company. Do you know what settings to expect when you get a normal DHCP configuration from the cable company? What is the output from the ifconfig command after letting eth1 configure itself by DHC P (netcardconfig)? Have you tried just plugging the computer directly into the cable modem and bypassing the switch?

Okay, the reason that we have a switch and not a router is because we have had terrible luck with routers dying on us (we've lost three in the past year) and we got sick of it. This switch has worked wonderfully since we've got it, and when windows was working on my laptop, it worked well there. We rent two IP addresses from our cable company, which is why we have can have the two computers hooked up to the switch simultaneously.

The reason that I'm using linux now is because (I believe) the boot data was corrupted on my laptop hdd, and I can't boot into windows anymore. I loaded the livecd in hopes that I would be able to connect to my network and pass over the data that I want to save (I've checked it, and it seems to all be fine) so that I can back it up. I can't connect, though.

To answer the questions you've asked (I hope I get them all):
Two computers connected to the switch, both with their own ip addresses.
I'm not running a network between these computers (the network that I mentioned earlier is at another house where I would transfer the data for backup - here I would just like to be able to access the internet).
I know what I should expect from a DHCP configuration, and when I use ifconfig eth1 shows what I would expect.
I have connected the computer directly to the modem, no change in my situation.


What I've tried:
Not much...I brought down eth1 and eth0 (separately), and bringing down eth1 resulted the comptuer isntantly being able to recognize that it can't find the host, whereas when I brought down eth0 and brought eth1 up it took some time, so I presume that I should be connecting through eth1 and it is my wired adapter, which is the only one connected to anything.

I've never used linux before, so sometimes I'm not sure how to describe things, but I hope this helps. Any more ideas?

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Originally Posted by calathar

The reason that I'm using linux now is because (I believe) the boot data was corrupted on my laptop hdd, and I can't boot into windows anymore.

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Boy, that doesn't surprise me. I would never dare to run Windows naked that way on a high speed connection with no NAT firewall protection.

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Originally Posted by calathar

I know what I should expect from a DHCP configuration, and when I use ifconfig eth1 shows what I would expect................I've never used linux before, so sometimes I'm not sure how to describe things, but I hope this helps. Any more ideas?

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Well, if eth1 is showing what you expect it should be showing, that seems to say to me that it did get it's settings by DHCP, and so it must be on the network. Right? Are you sure all of the settings are right? Have you tried the basic simple things like trying to ping an address? You should be able to ping (from a "shell") knoppix.net with the command ping www.knoppix.net . If that doesn't work try ping 216.32.81.146 , which is the same thing with DNS taken out of the picture.

Running a naked high speed connection is just not safe, but at lesast you should be reasonably safe running Linux and a Live CD system.

I can't ping anything, I've tried that too. Also, I am running software firewalls on all my machines. It's significantly better than no connection at all, which is my luck with routers. And I didn't corrupt the data due to lack of protection, it was because of a firmware installation gone wrong.

If it helps, this is what I get with ifconfig.

eth1
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:0D:52:E7:36
inet addr:24.244.xx.xxx Bcast: 24.244.xx.xxx Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 METRIC:1
RX packets:144 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:160 errors: dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:33137 (32.3 KiB) TX bytes:9512 (9.2 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xcf40 Memory:fcef7000-fcef7038

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:138 errors:0 dropped:0 overrun:0 frame:0
TX packets:138 errors:0 dropped:0 overrun:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:12459 (12.1KiB) TX bytes:12456 (12.1 KiB)

I'm out of ideas. If you got that IP address by DHCP (rather than by manually putting it into netcardconfig ot a similar technique) then I would think the interface has to be working, Why it isn't stumps me. I'll back off and hope others join in the conversation. Plaes post back with the solution when you learn it.

Do take care and put limited trust in the software firewall. I run (non-Microsoft) firewall software on all of my systems too, even with a router. But software alone isn't a strong defense. Too much of the stack and system stuff is exposed to exploits before the software comes into play.

All right, thanks for the help. Hopefully someone can fix it...I have about 40gB of data that I can't lose and need to transfer over.

Hi, I am some what new to knoppix and have installed knoppix 3.8.1 on my hard drive and i have a Linksys wireless B notebook adapter model number WPC11 ver.4 and it doesn't seem to recognize the card, what i basicly need to know is how to install the card and get my wireless back up and running. if i cant get my wireless back i am going to have to put Microsuck Winblows back on my system just so that i am able to work on my system.....PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!