Suddenly can't connect.

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05-30-2003, 03:47 AM
Kman

Suddenly can't connect.

I fired up the Knoppix cd a bit ago. I went about making a connection the same way I did yesterday. Everything looked like it did yesterday. I got the connection has been established message. But nothing will load in either browser. I have done nothing new to this comp. The rest of the OS runs fine. It just suddenly won't load up any web pages. DSL still works fine on my winblows 98 box. Anyone have any thoughts on this, why this suddenly won't work only hours after I had it running fine. I'd really like to run this OS very much. Thanks for any help.

Kman
05-30-2003, 04:45 AM
Stephen

Can you ping an outside address (ping 212.100.234.54) from knoppix if this is true you have a DNS problem.

Check your network settings in Windows (IIRC winipcfg in the run dialog) and compare them to ifconfig eth? in Knoppix and look for differences. Also how are you connected through DHCP or static settings.
05-30-2003, 08:03 AM
Harry Kuhman

Re: Suddenly can't connect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kman

I fired up the Knoppix cd a bit ago. I went about making a connection the same way I did yesterday. Everything looked like it did yesterday. I got the connection has been established message. But nothing will load in either browser. I have done nothing new to this comp. The rest of the OS runs fine. It just suddenly won't load up any web pages. DSL still works fine on my winblows 98 box. Anyone have any thoughts on this, why this suddenly won't work only hours after I had it running fine. I'd really like to run this OS very much. Thanks for any help.

Kman

As the other post said, if you have a local network see if you can ping other addresses on the network (the router is a good place to start). Also, you can try netcardconfig and see if it will get you a dhcp connection, and if not you can try to manually configure the card and see if that works.

I experienced what sounds like the same problem a little over a month ago, Knoppix connected fine, then a few days later the same CD would not. I sure don't know that it's the same thing, but you might want to read through the 2 threads here I've started..

If you can't ping another local IP address, I'm very interested in finding out what the problem is. I do have a theory, but it's much more important to get the real cause than to prove my theory right. Did you run any other software on the computer since the last time Knoppix worked and connected for you? Another version of Knoppix? Another bootable CD? An operating system on your hard drive? Windows? If any of these, please tell me to the best of your ability what you ran.

If you cannot ping a local IP address (and have other devices to ping), I'm also very interested in finding out what your nic is and getting any internal information we can from it. I've posted the info on this in the other threads, so will not duplicate it here unless you ask specific questions.

Harry
05-30-2003, 02:22 PM
Kman

Hey, thanks for the responses. I have not ran any other disks or installed anything, but I did turn on the comp thinking I had the knoppix disk in the drive, when in fact it was not. Windows had almost loaded when I noticed I had not put in the disk. So I hit the power off switch before it got completely loaded. I put in the knoppix cd, started it up. Everything ran fine except the net. I'm really new to broadband, so I don't have the greatest handle on pinging addresses. I'm using a D-Link DFE-530TX+ pci adapter card. I'll try to find out more.... I just read in your other posts about the windows updates messing things up. Scary! However I have not run any updates on my comp. It appears as if this is also maybe an XP problem. I'm still in the days of Windows 98. I see others are having similar problems. I do hope we can find the cure for this. Thanks for your help. Forgive my ignorance, but where do I input the netcardconfig command to see if it'll work ? At startup or once Knoppix has loaded? And how about manually configuring the card? Thanks.

Kman
05-30-2003, 06:10 PM
Stephen

When knoppix has booted open a console window (the clam shell icon on the taskbar) and enter it there, netcardconfig is configuring manually so to speak. If you want you can edit the files /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf to achieve the same effect.

To ping an address, in a console window simply ping web.site.name or the numeric version of the address as I suggested above.

Other usefull command lsmod to find the modules loaded I believe your card uses the tulip module so look for that being loaded and in use.

Also you have not mentioned do you use DHCP or static settings.
05-30-2003, 06:15 PM
Harry Kuhman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kman

I'm still in the days of Windows 98. I see others are having similar problems. I do hope we can find the cure for this. Thanks for your help. Forgive my ignorance, but where do I input the netcardconfig command to see if it'll work ? At startup or once Knoppix has loaded? And how about manually configuring the card? Thanks.

Striker2002 reports that he's seen it on a Win98 system. It would be reasonable, if it is M$ doing this, which is not proved even though things point that way, to assume that they are finding ways to do it with all flavors of their system. Also, if you have installed a recent version of Media Player, the fine print in the "click through licencising agreement" pretty much says you give them the right to disable any software on your system they want, M$ software or other software. It does not, however, give them the right to damage your hardware, which changing an eeprom to bad values does.

On pinging: tell us what you have on your system. You first post said DSL still works fine on my winblows 98 box so it sounds like you have a local network. Guess you could be plugging and unplugging computers into your DSL modem, or that "windows 98 box" might even be the same computer without the Knoppix CD, but it would help greatly to know if you have a DSL router like the Linksys installed. This would make it easy to ping a local device (the router itself would be a good first target). If you don't have one, then do a traceroute to any URL while in Windows and note the first couple of IP addresses you see and try to ping them under windows. You should be able to ping them under Knoppix as well, but this does involve a lot more things working (like logging into your DSL account) than is involved with pinging a local router. In fact, given the current low cost of these devices, I would suggest getting one even if you had only 1 computer on your DSL connection. It gives a lot more utility in working with the network and it gives you an extra hardware firewall (there are some issues with a few applications like NetMeeting, but overall the extra security is worth it).

As to where to input netcardconfig: Fire up a shell (little icon on the bottom set of tools with a shell in a window). Type netcardconfig. You'll see it brings up a utility to configure your network card. This same utility is available in the menus, but I don't recall exactly what you go through and don't have Knoppix running at the moment. But you'll need the shell anyway if you need to reset the card (sudo mii-tool -r and then netcardconfig).
05-30-2003, 06:28 PM
deadmule

an update on knoppix networking not working properly

I had 3.1 working fine(early may) and then after updating WindowsxpPro I could no longer connect with 3.1. I downloaded 3.2 but nothing changed.

I connect directly to a westel wirespeed dsl but cannot get knoppix to connect....

just finished dl'ing , burning and booting SuSe 8.2 LIVE, It connects just fine! (though it doesn't see NTFS partitions, which is why I want my knoppix back!)

might try the gentoo live distro next

not sure if this helps but the mystery deepens.

DeadMule
05-30-2003, 07:30 PM
Harry Kuhman

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadmule

I had 3.1 working fine(early may) and then after updating WindowsxpPro I could no longer connect with 3.1. I downloaded 3.2 but nothing changed.

I connect directly to a westel wirespeed dsl but cannot get knoppix to connect....

just finished dl'ing , burning and booting SuSe 8.2 LIVE, It connects just fine!
not sure if this helps but the mystery deepens.

DeadMule

3.1 failed on me the exact same way after WinXP updates. My local network is different, so iI was able to watch packets (or lack of them) from another computer on a hub and be sure I wasn't sending anything.

Please try this: Start Knoppix, try browsing to a website and see it fail. open a shell window. type ifconfig eth0 and see if there are any TX errors reported (there was a TX error and a carrier error for every Tx packet in my case).

Try the mii-tool reset and rerun netcardconfig I've mentioned in the other threads and please let me know if it works for you.

It's not a hugh mystery that some distros work or fail differenly than others, Whatever is doing this isn't breaking it so bad that networking doesn't work at all (although there was a Windows update last week that did that! see:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._bug&printer=1 ) so some systems (I expect those that just configure the nic and don't default to eeprom settings) work OK. Maybe last weeks bad Windows update was an attempt to get them too that backfired.
05-31-2003, 05:32 PM
Kman

Hey thanks for the how to instructions guys. I believe I am using DHCP settings. I do have a D-link DI -604 router, but do not have it up and running yet. I will get it going and see what I come up with. I hope to get some time tonight or tommorow to try these options. I'll let you know what happens. Again thanks for the instructions. Hopefully these will work.

Kman
06-06-2003, 11:11 PM
Kman

Hello, I finally got time to try netcardconfig, but to no avail. Still no internet. Any other thoughts? I'll keep trying to make this work.

Kman
06-08-2003, 05:45 AM
Harry Kuhman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kman

I finally got time to try netcardconfig, but to no avail. Still no internet. Any other thoughts?

Thoughts:

Set up your D-link. It will make things a lot simpler.

Give us something to work with. In a previous post you said I believe I am using DHCP settings, but you don't seem sure (with the d-Link you will be). What are you seeing? What errors are present? (see the two threads I started for several commands that will give useful information; these were what led me to find that my auto-negoiation setting had been changed and was no longer working correctly. We need some additional information to make progress in your case.
06-08-2003, 06:53 PM
Kman

I have been trying over and over to get the router set up. D-links site says to not use their setup wizard for PPPoE. So I have tried to use the step by step instructions on the site several times , but nothing. So as I stand now, I can't get the router to function. So I guess I'm going with the single computer connection right now. I did try a morphix disk today, that worked great but also would no connect to the net. I ran the ifconfig etho command and got back TX errors. I'll try the other options and see what I get.

Kman
06-08-2003, 10:14 PM
Harry Kuhman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kman

I have been trying over and over to get the router set up. D-links site says to not use their setup wizard for PPPoE. So I have tried to use the step by step instructions on the site several times , but nothing.

I don't have a d-link or the docs right in fromt of me, but I have set up one for a friend on PPPoE and then later on cable with mac address cloning and both times the device was very easy to set up. For PPPoE you just go to the web page interface and give it your username and password. For cable and MAC cloning the thing is even easier to configure than a Linksys - rather than have to write down your mac address and then type it in, you just click a button and it clones the address of the computer it got the clone command from (slick, although there seems to be no way to type in a MAC address, so it does mean you have to have a working MAC address to clone it. I don't see this as a problem for any legitimate use.) Tell us what happens when you try to set the device up, as well as any additional confiiguration options that I might not remember or didn't have to deal with but you might. Also, saying who your ISP is might help if someone else has them and also has a d-link.

The TX errors you got back sound similar to what I saw when I got hit with the problem after a Windows "security update". But there are a lot of potential factors that could also be an issue if you have to do a PPPoE connection right from the Knoppix CD. Getting the d-link in place and working will make things much easier, the d-link takes care of PPPoE and your Knoppix system doesn't have to deal with it; should just work on the network after booting (as long as you don't have the NIC eeprom configuration problem I've been reporting). You'll also be able to ping or talk to any other device on your local network; even before you add any more computers you'll have the d-link to talk to and know if networking on your system is working without worrying about the PPPoE connection. A nice side effect is that Windows will not need the PPPoE stuff your ISP provider either - you can scrap it; your system should boot faster, and it will be one less thing you have in Windows to take up memory or to crash at the wrong moment.

In fact, even if you don't take the time to get the d-link working with your ISP, I would suggest this and a second alternative: Power up the d-link and even though you don't hook it up to your DSL modem, cable it over to your Knoppix system. You can then use Knoppix to see if you can talk to the d-link (ping it or connect to the web interface) without worrying about PPPoE at all. Of course, this doesn't get you access to the Internet, but it does help you troubleshoot your networking problems and minimize the factors that could be going wrong. If Knoppix comes up and can connect to the d-link this way then you do not have the NIC problems I do. IF it still can't talk to the d-link, then you don't have to worry about PPPoE under Knoppix yet - you have other things to resolve first.