I'll give the setup first so I wont forget:

RedHat: 6.2 (Now 7.1)
Ethernet Card: NetGear (not the problem)
Router: Linksys bfr??41 (something like that)
ISP: Earthlink (mindspring.com (dynamic IP)
Setup: DSL Modem -> Router -> 2 windows boxes -> my linux box

It took me a while just to get connected to the router due to my stupidity. After I edited what i thought to be the right options in network configurator i tried to logon to earthlink via the setup page from the router via netscape. When i filled in the information in the router and hit apply the page would flash about two or three times then come up with an error stating that it could not connect to a pppoe server. If there is anything off the top of your head that you know is wrong let me know or if you have suggestions.

....but I've got mindspring/earthlink dsl too (I feel your pain, man). And I use rp-pppoe to connect for my single box ( RoaringPenguin) Red Hat must have an rpm for it?

Anyway, install the rpm, log as root, and do adsl-setup. You need to give the dns servers, your account name and password and answer a few questions about your setup. Hope you can make some use of this.

I too have a Mindspring DSL account. I'm attempting to connect to the internet with roaring penquin PPPoE under Mandrake 8.1.

My problem is that PPPoE times out every time that I attempt to connect.

Anyone who has successfully connected using PPPoE and Mandrake 8.1 ... especially if your isp is Earthlink/ Mindspring, I appreciate it if you could post the specifics of how you were able to get it to connect. Such as, which DNS servers you used, etc ...

Paul Sterrett

I'm running Mandrake 8.1 Gamer, and I have the same problem. I've been trying everythign I can find, but nothing works... I'm even more screwed than you are, as my domain (ix.netcom.com) was bought by mindspring, then earthlink, rendering tech support virtually nonexistent...
But I think I have the problem figured out, tho. Mandrake cannot seem to send the account info right. I looked through the debug packet info, and it says Authentification failed: username unkown: ^M^J (that is exactly what it spits out, even tho my username and pw are correct) it also looked liek it was trying to connect to Houston instead of Austin, where I live.
Earthlink requires a certain protocol to send account info. For Windows, it's Client for Microsoft Networks. If you don't have that, it'll spit out tehe very same messages... Anyone know how to emulate Windows log-on protocols?

I have been connecting to Mindspring, now Earthlink, with rp-pppoe since Mandrake 7.1. Presently, during install or by calling draknet from a root prompt after install, I do the following steps:

autodetect nic
de-select the pre-selected LAN check box
select adsl
use pppoe
if it asks for domain: mindspring.com for me
DNS: 207.69.188.185, 207.69.188.186
username@mindspring.com
password
don't start connection at boot

I don't know if gamerz has the same software. You can also run the rp-pppoe setup script. Make sure it is installed, first, as root:

urpmi rp-pppoe
adsl-setup

Go with the defaults (e.g. not on-demand), fill in much the same information, and Standalone firewall is a good choice for web surfing.

There are docs in /usr/share/doc/rp-pppoe with some troubleshooting and debug info.