Hope someone can help. I tried to connect my Fedora pc directly to the cable modem with dhcpand got nothing. couldn't ping anything and could not get out. Then I hooked the same dhcp upto a Lynksys router and got connected.Why can't I hookup directly to the cable modem?
Thanks

What output do you get from an 'ifconfig' in each case?

Have you connected directly to the modem OK with another OS? Or only to the Router.

Sounds like your router may be giving out DHCP where as the modem isn't.....

[root@localhost root]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:80:C8:FC:72:BE
inet addr:192.168.1.101 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:19 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:22 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2851 (2.7 Kb) TX bytes:2259 (2.2 Kb)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xec00

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:2947 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2947 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2689150 (2.5 Mb) TX bytes:2689150 (2.5 Mb)


This one works. and yes if I hookup a windows pc it will find the network without any problem. I'll post the other in a bit as I'll have to logoff and restart the linux box and do another ifconfig.
but thanks for answering so quickly

If I hook the linux box directly to the cable modem and reboot the network fails and when I try to make active the nic card I get ( Siocsifflags cannot assign the requested address FAILED ). Also when I run ifconfig I get the lo side of the above ifconfig but nothing else.
Thanks Again

I've occasionally experienced that some ISPs do this:

They "remember" the MAC address of the device getting the IP address from them to make sure that Joe User only gets 1 DHCP address from them at a time - to keep their customers from connecting many computers via hub to the cable modem and snatching up all the addresses. Therefore, once you change NICs (i.e. switching from using the router to your computer) the address is unavailable.

Try this. With the router connected, get into its properties and release the DHCP address. Then disconnect the router, connect the computer, and see if you can get an address.

If that doesn't work, it's probably time to call your ISP.

- Don