Hi

I've got an Asus Eee laptop, Linux kernel 2.6.21-eeepc with an internal WiFi card and// with an external Sierra Wireless modem which connects via USB. When I use this machine on the local WiFi signal, everything is fine and I'm able to surf with the built-in Firefox without any problem.

But when I use PPPD to connect to the internet via a local Cellular carrier, I cannot access the 'net using Firefox. Weird. Here's what I know:

Laptop is running, WiFi is disabled, I've run "ifconfig eth0 down" just to make sure the Ethernet connection is not interfering.

1)PPP is Up
The PPP session is connected, ifconfig reveals there is a valid IP address and /etc/ppp/resolv.conf contains valid DnS numbers. From the command shell where I bring up PPPD, I can ping remote networks, by IP address only, though. The Sierra modem is also indicating there is a valid PPP connection

2) Route is Configured
A look at /sbin/route -s shows there are two entries, both using iface ppp0. The second entry in the table to 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 (dest/gateway).

3) Firefox Won't Work
If I start firefox, it displays the "Server not found" error message, regardless of the destination I try.

Summary:
As far as I can tell everything is working. I'm out of ideas for what to look for with Firefox, though. With PPP connected and running, Ping from the bash shell works but Firefox doesn't. If I switch to WiFi, Firefox works just fine. If anyone has a suggestion for how to troubleshoot this, I'd be happy to hear it!

Regards

Peat

Feb 11, 08
Edit - I put the unit onto the USB analyzer and discovered the Asus is sending out Endpoint Halt transfers for each of the active endpoints when the "Connect" button is pressed. Looks like a software problem, not hardware. Still don't know why the Asus would do this, though.

If you can ping remote networks (by their IP address, if nothing else), the connection should be just fine. If it doesn't work with human readable names like www.linuxquestions.org, then your DNS resolution is not functioning all right. Try running dhcpcd or dhclient once more on the interface, if it helped for a start.

I haven't used ppp connections too much lately, but as far as I can tell, if you can ping some addresses, the connection itself is okay. After that you need to have the addresses resolved (DNS), and after that make sure your programs don't use proxy if you don't need it, and that there are no firewall rules preventing anything you wouldn't want to.

Hi Bouncer,

Thanks for the reply. You are right, it was a DNS problem. After your clue, I checked the resolv.conf again, but I was looking in /etc/ppp/resolv.conf. The proper place to look was in /etc/resolv.conf. That file was empty and the correction to fix the problem was to copy the contents of the /etc/ppp/resolv.conf into /etc/resolv.conf.

On second thought, I probably should have posted this into a more appropriate group than "hardware". Sorry for the noise.

And thanks again for the assistance!

/Peat

Edit -

Maybe my posts are confusing, there are two separate problems getting connected on this machine. One was the PPP problem that Bouncer assisted with, the other is getting the native dialup connection manager working with a dialup connection. The former problem is resolved, but the latter is not. It is still sending out a Halt Endpoint command to all the endpoints for some strange reason. Unfortunately, that solution is the preferred one, but at least I have something going now.
/P