I am experiencing a connection problem with my 56K modem. At present am using Red Hat 8.0 on this machine. According to the Device control window I can activate the modem but when I click on the browser icon [default Mozilla] it does not connect to the web. The home page for Red Hat pops up but if I try to connect to either RHN or Red Hat.com it tells me that the URL cannot be found. This leads me to believe that either the modem is not active or that it is not connecting. This is a dual boot machine and on the other side [Windows XP] I can hear the modem dialing the access number, but not on the Linux side. Is there something I should be doing that I am not or what. The modem is an ActionTec
V.90 PCI 56K PCI Master and does have destructions for Red Hat 5.2 and 6.0. As of yet I have had no luck accessing the web on the Linux side.

Could be DNS, Gateway or like you say - it aint connecting. Once it has "appeared" to connect can you use a phone on the same line to see if there is dial tone?

You are describing the problem by how Mozilla behaves. Your problem would be easier to understand if you described how the modem handler behaved. On most Linux distributions the modem is handled by either wvdial or kppp.

For Mr. Ross and jailbait...... well the modem was not even active, the phone line was a dial tone even though it indicated that the modem was active. Messed around with it and finally got it to dial the number [however somehow or other I have lost the dial tone] but it still would not connect to the web. It had the modem sounds and all that stuff that is associated with the dial up connections. So am still at a loss for the reason/problem and the solution. Now as to the wvdial or kppp am going to guess that it is using the kppp as the infomation that is in the internet configuration setup indicates that it lists the connection as ppp0, I would assume that is what you are referring too.

When you connect to the internet you start kppp. kppp connects to your ISP. Then you can start mozilla which will communicate through kppp. Any program that uses the internet connects through kppp and you can run several internet programs at the same time (mozilla, sylpheed, kbear, etc.) and kppp keeps their communications all sorted out.

In any case I think from your posts that you are not starting kppp (or wvdial which does the same thing as kppp).

Your problem definitely can be solved. Check if you already did this:
1. Look around for modem HOWTO's and install your modem drivers.
2. Check if you have /dev/modem
3. Is your ISP AOL? If it is you will need a different dialer
4. Is kppp configured correctly?
5. Does the modem work fine in windows?

The most important part is checking whether your modem driver works correctly. To do this you can dial any number and listen on the phone whether the modem performs the operation correctly.

try connecting with kppp. type the following in a terminal window:
kppp
then click options and configure for your account and tell us how it worked

For jailbait and poison5151.......

Here is the latest results that I can provide...I can hear the modem dialing on the speakers so at least that much has been accomplished. The impression I get is that even though the modem is dialing the ISP server/hub the connection is never completed since the monitor never changes from the "activating network device" window. I am assuming [could be a mistake there] that even though the modem sounds like it might be connecting after it does the dialing that the response it should be receiving does not happen. I also think that it would keep dialing until the ice cap melts. ....... I know the problem can be solved somehow, I am very stubborn, I shall overcome, my ISP is Access-4-Free, they say their Linux compatable, remains to be seen though. I do not know if kppp is configured correctly or not but here is all the information I have so far on this problem...IRQ11, COM6 according to the Windows Device Mngr, when booting up the Linux side it does make a mention that the IRQ11 is associated with ttys4 and in the internetnet configuration window that same dev/ttyS4 appears as the location of the modem for linux. The directions that came with this particular modem give configuration for ppp, kppp, GNOME dialer, linuxconf Dialer, duh ... whaddup doc

I did some research and I figured you try to connect by following instructions on this pagehttp://www.access-4-free.com/Support/Linux.htm . That's not the way I connect but I have AOL which is the crappiest ISP you can get. I can suggest the following:
1. Download the software access-4-free has on their page for linux (unless im wrong) and try that.
2. Forget the whole network device activation thing, and just use kppp to dial whatever access number they provide.
3. If nothing works out you can e-mail me @ poison5151@aol.com with your local access number and (preferably) screenname.
Good Luck

Wait a second. Before you try all the things I wrote above, flush your firewall rules. If you're using KDE go to System Security or something like that and disable all firewalls. And then see if you can go to any website with Mozilla.

poison5151...
I have the so-called Linux RedHat Setup information from Access-4-Free and it looks nothing like the internet configuration destructions that are in RedHat 8.0 but I did attempt to follow what they said and all I get is not connected to the web. So in that regard their support sux. How do I go about flushing the firewall rules ... doubt if I am using KDE it should be GNOME and Mozilla is default browser .. at least for now anyway

in a terminal window type the following:
su -
[your root password]
iptables -F
This should get rid of all your firewall rules. Now try to connect using my directions below. If this doesn't work then use the activate button inside the network setup window.
Open a terminal window and type
kppp
Then hit the setup button and type all the info you can. Then use this account to dial access-4-free. Then open mozilla and try to visit any website. If this doesn't work you can use the activate button. Finally, if that doesn't work check if access-4-free has a proxy server then you will need to configure mozilla.
p.s. i tried to connect using the settings you provided from kppp. the modem dials fine and everything but then the server hangs up. i believe this is due to the incorrect password that I naturally typed. However, once you do all of this stuff, you should be able to connect just fine.

poison5151 and the rest who are trying to help this ignornant neophyte....
Logged in as root [su] and opened up the start here icon went to the security settings icon opened it up and selected no firewalls, from the 3 options, closed the window down then reopened it just to check. It had returned to the [default] setting of high security, no matter what I did it would not retain the no firewall option... hummmm .... is lost ... I have the same indications you did with the dialing .. it gets the server but disconnects after about 5 seconds. From what I can gather going through the information from the ISP they do not make any mention of a proxy server....... so what I end up with is the modem dials the server...pretty sure that it connects but after a short period the server disconnects from the modem. No connection to the web is ever made. At least none that I know of. I hope that this can be resolved since the modem on the other machine does not connect the web either but it has a whole different story behind it.

hmm. if the server drops the connection there may be a whole different story. i really don't know what to suggest at this point.

Well.....okay...still not connecting to the web on that particular modem, but have not given up. On the other machine I cannot connect either but it is a different modem [USRobitics] and is compatable with Linux according to the mfgr. The problem is that when I am trying to get it all set up when I attempt to "query the modem" I get the response .. "cannot open modem" , ummm .. what is this trying to tell me to do[besides go away]