No internet/WAN connectivity; I'm clueless

**Berserkier** · 06-30-2004, 10:51 PM

I just got Knoppix last night. I've never used any form of Unix or Linux before.

I need to know how to hook up to my cable internet account via my wireless hub. I use a Linksys hub and USB antenna, a Dell Dimension L667r, and my cable internet is through Earthlink. I'm not sure if the changes I need to make should be to the OS or to the browser. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-01-2004, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by Berserkier

I need to know how to hook up to my cable internet account via my wireless hub. I use a Linksys hub and USB antenna,...Any suggestions would be welcome.

Suggestion:
jack your Dell into the Linksys with a cat-5 cable and see if that works. If it does then you know you can focus your efforts on the wireless connection (which is where I expect the problems are). However, if the wired connecton doesn't work then you'll need to resolve any issues therebefore you have a chance to resolve the wireless issues.

I can't help you with the wireless stuff (never got the wireless suff working on my notebook with a pcmcia card), but I can help if you still have problems when accessing without the wireless issues.

If ithe usb wireless device is the problem you'll need to post back exactly what model the devce is before anyone can tell you if there is Linux support for it.

**Berserkier** · 07-01-2004, 03:23 PM

Don't I have to configure my user name and password somewhere?

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-01-2004, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by Berserkier

Don't I have to configure my user name and password somewhere?

Well, you've never mentioned the specific cable company or the exact model of equpment you use. With the cable companies I've seen (mostly Time Warner / Road Runner), no, you do not. But post the specifics of the cable company if you want someone to give more details. Also, you talked about connecting through a Linksys device you called a wireless hub. I've never seen a wireless hub, and although such a device could exist I really expect you are talking about a Linksys Wireless Router. The router is not a hub. It's a switch (the differnce in the two terms is important). If you are using a Linksys Router then you will do any setup information you need to do in the router itself. For most DSL (PPPoE) connections you do need to let the router provide a uers/password when connecting, but for most cable connections you do not. In all cases the Linksys router will take care of the connection for you and the individual computers do not deal with it at all. So it's important to set up the router to poperly connect to your service provider (I was thinking this had already been done, likely under Windows or a MAC OS, but now am not so sure). Then just jack Knoppix into the router to be sure you can connect to it and the Internet wired. Only then should you start fighting the wireless support in Linux, which is unfortunately not there for all equipment due to hardware makers not releasing important information to the Linux community.

By the way, if you do really have a hub rather than a NAT Router, then you very well might not be able to connect to the cable company through it, at least not with multiple computers at the same time (since your cable company is likely assigning you only one IP address). But I'll wait until you confirm what you really have before we open that can of worms.

**Berserkier** · 07-01-2004, 10:02 PM

Yes, I misspoke. I meant to say wireless router. The router is a Linksys model BEFW11S4. The antenna is also made by Linksys and its model number is WUSB11 ver. 2.6. My ISP is Earthlink Cable. The router is already properly set up to connect to the ISP. Unfortunately, my computer does not have a network card, so I can't plug in to the cable modem directly.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-01-2004, 10:29 PM

OK, I'll back off at this point and hopefully someone that knows if or if not this wireless device can be supported in Knoppix will respond.

You do not need to do any login from your PC, and I don't t believe you even had to put a user/password in to the Linksys. Earthlink is using RR as the service provider, you'll see you go thorugh a lot of RR nodes if you do a trace to anywhere. Your router must be configured properly since you are sending these posts from it.

Also, if you have a free PCI slot consider getting a NIC card. You can usually find them around $5 retail or frequently free after rebate (I always keep a free one on my shelf as a spare), don't pay more than $10, and only pay a few dollars for a normal cable (some people will ask about $3 for a 10 foot cable, some places will try to get $29.99 for the same item. The same price difference holds true for USB cables, by the way.)