Internet connection worked once!

[linda912]

I am really upset! I got Mandrake 9.1 installed, and fired up an internet connection, went to my yahoo mail, read it and replied to someone, no problems. Then I decided to close the Mandrake control center box (which was open because I had to connect manually) and got disconnected from the net. And now I can't get it to connect again!

I have been trying to use Mandrake (7.0, 8.0, and now 9.1) for a few years, but keep getting hung up with the internet config. I was so happy that it worked just now, and then to have it snatched away.... anyway, here's the deal...

I have a dsl connection with verizon. I have a card installed in my computer, which mandrake found and set up (as a lan). I also have an external modem that verizon gave me, which is also detected by mandrake. What I don't know, is how I got it to work once, and not again! I went thru the wizards, and made sure it was adsl and ppoe, because that worked for me the one time. But now it wont. Oh, can anyone help me? I will be eternally grateful!

[mdwatts]

First I'll move this over to the Networking forum. :)

[Zaren]

I figured I'd just tell you I feel for you. I messed with Mandrake network wizards for a while and it always seemed to change what I put in there and assume things that it really shouldn't. Eventually I got fed up and switched to Debian. YAY! :)

I wish you the best of luck, because I had none when I was messing with it. =)

[mdwatts]

See if what I just posted in this thread (http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107123) helps.

Does

ifconfig

show your eth0 (or it is pppoe) up and running with a ip address?

[linda912]

mdwats, that other user knows way more than I do...

Let me fill you in on what I did. I installed Mandrake and allowed it to find all of the internet stuff by iteself. It found an eth0, and a winmodem, which it said (of course) wasn't compatible. I then tried to boot into my new install, and got failed messages all pertaining to the eth0 thing.

I knew from past experience with mandrake that it would mess up my internet stuff, so I figured I would do a fresh install, and I wouldn't let it search for the eth0 thing. It worked fine... I came up to the menu for summary (during install) and told it not to detect, and I checked off adsl, and entered my own stuff pertaining to verizon. I finished the install, booted up (with no fail messages this time) and everything looked so nice!

I then tried to go to a page on the web. I wasn't connected, so I went into Mandrake Control, Drak-whatever to connect to the internet, clicked on connect, and it worked! Like I said before, I did a little emailing, but the open window to Mandrake Control seemed un-necessary, so I closed it. And there went my internet connection.

So now I don't really know how to tinker around. I use all of the menus and graphic get-arounds, not a command prompt. I'll try the command prompt and type in the ifconfig and see what it says. Should both eth0 and ppoe have something running? Should it be one and not the other?

[mdwatts]

If you have a ethernet card, it should show as eth0.

Ensure you have PnP OS disabled in the bios as this alone can cause PCI devices to not be detected and configured properly.

Does the command

lsmod (list loaded modules)

show the module/driver as being loaded for your ethernet card?

[linda912]

I checked the bios for entries about PnP os, and couldn't find anything. So i suppose that is not a feature with my bios. It's a dell.

I think I'm fed up with Mandrake again too. I just tried to install it again, and it keeps overwriting my mbr even though i am telling it to put the bootloader elsewhere. Maybe I am making a mistake with that, but I was ok with mandrake 8 in that respect. Mandrake 9 seems to be trying to do too much for me, and not letting me decide on things.

So, let's see, debian?

[JohnT]

Here's a link to Roaring Penguin and the easiest way to set up your DSL. I have used it and it took about 5-10 minutes to get online with the app already included in my distro. That doesn't include reading the info available "in its entirety" before proceeding.
http://www.roaringpenguin.com/pppoe/

[linda912]

Well how about that, that looks like exactly what I need!
Which distro did you use, I'm curious to know...

[JohnT]

I use Slackware 9.0.......its in my signature.:p

[linda912]

OK, the pppoe from roaring penguin didn't work out for me...

I did the ifconfig command, and this was the output:

root@libranet:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:BA:C9:E5:8F
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:130 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:326 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:7823 (7.6 KiB) TX bytes:22051 (21.5 KiB)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0xc00

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:52 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:52 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3584 (3.5 KiB) TX bytes:3584 (3.5 KiB)

By the way, I got rid of Mandrake and installed Libranet 2.7. The other thread I was referred to suggested to me that I should try a different distro.

I hope mdwatts is still around for some help? Or someone else???

[linda912]

Well, I got it to work!

Just in case anyone needs to know how...
I installed Libranet without letting it automatically find my network card or configure my network connection.
Then I went here http://www.roaringpenguin.com/pppoe/
and got their program. And read all of the information!
Then I went back to Libranet, went to XAdmin and loaded my network card. That worked fine for me, it detected it.
Then I followed the instructions included with Roaring Penguin's program to the letter: I did NOT use any of Libranet's menus. I think that is what did me in the last time I tried: all of those editing menus added too much conflicting information. (Maybe)
Anyway, I checked to make sure my card was working by typing lsmod and ifconfig the0, and it was fine.
So I then typed adsl-setup and followed it from there. For Verizon, I had to type in my username with the @verizon.net. When it asked for dns numbers, I typed in server (as suggested by the promp since Verizon takes care of numbers). And by golly it all worked. I am so happy!

Oh, another thing I did before I booted into Libranet, I turned off the Westell modem from Verizon. I booted into Libranet, and then turned it on. I don't know if that helped, but it does send info to the computer, so maybe turing it on while in Libranet sent some needed info to my computer.

Well, I hope this keeps working! Thank you so much for the help, and the link to rp-pppoe!