I have finally given up on setting up internet connection on Mandrake 10.1 Official after a dozen fresh installations and many attempts to set up things on each installation. I have AT&T DSL modem hooked into eth0. At one point I was able to connect to AT&T Worldnet at commandline by using /usr/sbin/adsl-setup utility, but could not be online through any web browser. Now even this utility and pppd are gone in my last 3-4 installations. They are not there in /usr/sbin directory or anywhere else. I have no clue what happened. When these utilities were present, I also tried a setup from this website:

http://www.wurd.com/instcon_linux.php

But it did not work either. Strangely, it probably also messed up my DSL modem, because when I tried to connect to internet through XP I got an error. So I had to call AT&T technical support and they told me to power the modem off and then on. It worked then. How is it possible for some application/configuration in Linux to break any hardware (DSL modem in this case) for Windows' use also?

Anyway, I have to decided to throw away my Mandrake 10.1 Official DVD and try some other distro. I will greatly appreciate your suggestion. Thanks.

It seems the issue is not linked to MDK10.1. Your modem gets an IP address from the ISP. If it loses that for any reason, it may need to be reset to get another. Not all DSL lines are created equal. If you are at the margins of a DSL area, the signal quality may be a problem. Try MDK again. It can handle most devices that any Linux can because the drivers come with the kernel, not the distro.

I use Fedora 2, dsl connection was automatic, no configuring, I just selected auto for dhcp during install and had nothing to do afterword.

I am stuck on a dial up at this time because I moved.

I also used debian and slackware and both of those detected the DSL automatically.

What I like about Fedora is being able to go to freshrpms.net and being able to download extra stuff like "Mame" and mp3 support or just updates to applications in general.

It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to see a distrubution specific application.

I have used alot of distro's and Fedora, Slackware, Debian, and are my favorites, not in that order, but that is the order I would suggest.

The best thing to do is just try a bunch and settle for the one you like best.