Knoppix 5.0 STRANGE INTERNET PROBLEMS!!!!

[toppshatta]

i recently tried knoppix 5.0. i used 4.02 before. I have a pci nic which connects to my adsl modem.
When i boot to knoppix 4.02. The internet works just fine i can surf painlessly, but in version 5.01
i cannot connect to the net. i checked online (using 4.02) for help, i got a tip. i ran netcardconfig. i used dhcp, it
returned everything was ok, but i still couldnt surf. i tried not using dhcp, and i put in the values i got from
ifconfig. suprisingly it worked fine, but after a few minutes it deteriorated, and i was unable to surf again.when i tried
running netcardconfig with dhcp it returned an error.
I had to switch off my modem and try netcardconfig again, put it the same values, it would work fine, but after a few minutes i would get an error on firefox or any other browers i used!! this is starnge to me as i am somewhat of a beginner at this. please help me!!

[Harry Kuhman]

I have a pci nic which connects to my adsl modem.... i used dhcp a, it
returned everything was ok, but i still couldnt surf. i tried not using dhcp access, and i put in the values i got from
ifconfig. suprisingly it worked fine, but after a few minutes it deteriorated, and i was unable to surf again.when i tried
running netcardconfig with dhcp it returned an error...

You're not giving us the right information to help you. Does this modem have a built in router? (It sounds like it does but you are not saying.) You're not even telling us what modem it is, which would be a help if anyone was will to do your work and look up the modem specs. You don't tell us what settings you use when you manually do the netcardconfig, which migth help us spot a problem if that's where the problem is, you don't tell us what settings DHCP normally sets up (the output of ifconfig). You say "it returned an error" but you don't even bother to record the error and tell us what it is.

[toppshatta]

well thanks for respondimg so quickly. my modem does have a built in router, the modem is a typical usb/ethernet adsl modem (starbridge pyxis 210,
i noticed when i checked my modem settings it has PPOA-VC MUX enabled)When i do ifconfig before i do anything to the netwrok settings on knoppix 5.01 i get

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:80:AD:88:40:56
inet addr:10.0.0.3 Bcast:255.255.255.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::280:adff:fe88:4056/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:336 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:357 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:315485 (308.0 KiB) TX bytes:99210 (96.8 KiB)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0xe800

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:500 (500.0 b) TX bytes:500 (500.0 b)



As for the settings i used when i manually do netcard config is:

Ip for eth0 : 10.0.0.3
network mask for eth0: 255.255.255.0
broadcast address for eth0 : 255.255.255.255
default GW: 10.0.0.1
DNS: 10.0.0.1

After about a minute of browsing i get this error on knoquerer:

An error occurred while loading http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/:
Unknown host www.knopper.net

And mozilla returns a similar error.

Then i ran netcardconfig again using DHCP broadcast i get this:

Sendimg DHCP broadcast from device eth0 Operation failed.
Failed.
Hit return to exit.

Then i ran ifconfig again and i get this:

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:21 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:21 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1576 (1.5 KiB) TX bytes:1576 (1.5 KiB)

Some how my eth0 cant be detected.

I have to switch my modem off and on again then manually do netcardconfig again for it to work then after a minute i would get an error again.
I'm really lost lol .Thanks for the help

[Harry Kuhman]

.... my modem does not have a built in router its a typical usb/ethernet adsl modem (starbridge pyxis 210)

I haven't looked the modem up (a little busy now), but I have no idea what is going on or how any of what you report is happening if the modem does not include a router and if you are not running any PPPoE software. All I know says that should not work at all. I think you should do some research on the modem. Of course, if it does include a router that still doesn't solve your main problem. I think that is because your broadcast address makes no sense at all. But I would need a better understanding of your hardware to give you a certain answer. 10.xx.xxx.xxx addresses are not usually used with class C size nets, but based on the 10 address that you showed and the mask that you showed I would try a broadcast address of 10.0.0.255. It makes sense that you would have problems after a few minutes if the ARP protocol breaks down, which it would with a bogus broadcast address.

[Harry Kuhman]

So you edited your post to remove the "not" about your modem having a router. But did the broadcast address that I gave you resolve the problem?

I should add that every computer on the local LAN must use the same broadcast address, so just changing it on the Knoppix system may not help if the other kids are not playing by the same rules. And the router needs to use the same broadcast address too. If the address that I gave you does not resolve things my next suggestion would be to use protocol analyzer software like ethereal to watch the ARP packets that the router sends out and match the broadcast address in the Knoppix system and any other computer on your network to the address that the router uses.

Thanks for the confirmation that the modem has a router, your original response that it did not made no sense.

[toppshatta]

Again thanks for responding so quickly. yes my modem does have a router( lol i did some reading) , its adress is 10.0.0.1 ( the same address i used in netcardconfig for default gateway) duh lol. newayz the boroadcast address you told me worked, but it detiorated again after a few minutes.but i tried it
on knoppix 4.02 and it worked just fine, had no problems at all. probably its a bug or sumthing in knoppix 5.01.By the way im the only person behind my router, so i guess im the only person on my lan.( forgive me if i sound stupid, but im reading so by the next post i'll be sure as im a beginner in this whole networking thing). and yes i used ethereal and the arp packets were sent to 255.255.255.255. however when i do dchp on knoppix 4.02 it works fine
and i get a broadcast address 255.255.255.255, but as i siad before i used this value before on knoppix 5.02 and it still detiorated after a minute or so.
Thanks for your help man really appreciate it.
Can u suggest a place for a good networking tutorial?? thanks again

[Harry Kuhman]

I don't know what te issue is. Yes, it could be a problem in 5.0.1, but I have not seen it on my 5.0.1 (maybe I'm not running long enough though, although I was thinking it happened in just a few minutes). BUt it does seem more likely an issue with your network, and the 255.255.255.255 broadcast address really throws me. You might want to look at the router setup and see if these are user settable settngs that might have been screwed up. I would also uggest looking to see if there is a newer firmware version that you could download and flash the router with.

Yes, I hope you are the only person on your router. As long as it doesn't have wireless capability and your systems have not been taken over by an evil hacker I expect that is the case.

Sorry, I don't have any one good source for networking information. But you can find links to all you need and more at Google. For example this simple search will give plenty of links that help you understand broadcast addresses and should help you see why your 255.255.255.255 address makes no sense to me. But be warned, you just can't trust everything you read on the Internet. In this case the very first link that I got with the search (your links may be different, Google is funny that way) was www.net.princeton.edu/iprouters and it's information is dead wrong! Broadcast addresses must never end in zero as it shows them doing. But the second link that I got was www.tldp.org/HOWTO/archived/IP-Subnetworking/IP-Subnetworking-3 and it gives a much better (and correct) description of the broadcast address. I expect that you could learn a lot just by starting at any network term in Wikipedia and reading the article and following links. And here is a good one on the broadcast address to start with. If you read nothing else I give in links, read this. Also, it would be good to learn to read and use the RFC's and fall back to them when you have a question on how things work.

Back to the problem, I'm running out of ideas. You could say it is maybe a bug in 5.0.1, but that doesn't help you and may not help get a bug fixed if there is one. The best thing that I can think of doing (if there is no firmware update that fixes this), would be to watch the packets with ethereal and see what is happening as things break down. Are you still seeing your requests go out? Do you get any sort of responses? Can you do other things like simple pings when things start falling apart? What has been happening on ARP while all of this goes on? Do you still see ARP packets at regular intervals as the systems announce themselves and try to keep the router tables current? (hint: do this for a while with 4.0.2 and/or Windows so that you can watch a functioning system and get a feel for how ARP works before you watch it go to hell with 5.0.1). If you can find and document a bug with 5.0.1 then that gives you a much better chance to report it and get it fixed in the next release than to just hope that someone else does it (someone else doesn't have your router with the wacky broadcast address).

[Harry Kuhman]

By the way, read this Wikipedia article too. I don't know that this is an ARP issue, but the way that you say it degrades in a few minutes makes me suspect that it could be.

[toppshatta]

Thanks again man. I am actualy busy reading the articles u gave me.I'll post ne thing interesting i find ASAP. Thanks again

[toppshatta]

Well i read the aritcles - very intersting.I checked the arp packets like u said, strangely though i realised that none of them this time had a destination address
all they were doing was my router was querying the mac address of 10.0.0.3 ( which is my ethernet card), and 10.0.0.3 replying with the mac address.
I also noticed that watever address i put for the broadcast address on knoppix 4.02 worked, with no problems. I also did arp -n in shell and noticed that the only address i have in the arp cache is my router 10.0.0.1.I logged into my router and looked at the settings, i found this. I am not sure if it will be useful.

WAN Statistic:
IP Address Subnet Mask MAC Address
172.26.12.163 255.255.0.0

LAN Statistic:
Number of computers connected to the DHCP server: 1
IP Address MAC Address
1 10.0.0.3


LAN & DHCP Configuration

LAN Setting (Router Configuration)

Enter the LAN IP address: 10.0.0.1
Enter the subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

DHCP Server Setting

Enable DHCP Server?: Yes
DHCP address pool selection: System Allocated

DHCP address pool (For User Defined only)

Start Address: 10.0.0.4

End Address: 10.0.0.15

Lease Time: 1 days 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds

Anyways man. After this post i'll just continue reading and try to figure out the problem.When i get the solution i'll post i, and maybe with the new knowledge i'll be able to help other users in this forum.Wish me luck