cable connection problems with suse10
 

Hi everybody,
hope there is someone out there that can help me with my connectivity problem.
I have an AMD2400+,with a 40G hdd.At the moment I am running XP Home.I connect through a motorola SURFboard SB5100 modem using a USB cable(have been unable to use the on board ethernet connection,there may be a problem with it in windows).I have suse10 and have followed the instruction from the suse manual(using the ethernet connection,there are no reported errors with the connection).I have tried giving my card an IP address(as per suse instruction),no luck.Have tried config. as DHCP,no luck.
YaST sees my VIA VT6102 fast ethernet,and reports no problems.
Is this a driver problem?
Have googled the,driver/motorola/linux,and the only ref. I have for that is an issue with drivers for the USB.Have been to motorola's website and they say that drivers are forthcoming.
Is it a config. problem?
If so is it me being dense,or a complete novice?
Please help as I am going NUTS!:eek: :newbie:
I await any help with rapidly reducing cranial hirsuteness.
BJS

Not sure if you've got the 20 bucks to spare, but I'd suggest getting a simple router and be done with it. Hook the cable modem into the router (a WRT54G is a cheap wireless option, or a BEFSR11 is an old school cheap wired option, both offered by Linksys) via an ethernet cable, then, configure the router to get the IP via DHCP (probably the route your ISP wants you to go) and then plug in your computer to the router, set it to DHCP, and everything should pretty much 'just work'.

That way when you turn off your computer you don't lose all your settings. Then the next time you turn on the computer it gets all the information from the locally configured router and it's much faster and easier to get online with.

HTH

Cool

thanks for your quick reply,is this the only way?
My ISP says that I should have no problem with a normal LAN setup.

No, it's not the only way. You can probably hook it up directly, but I'm a huge fan of spending the 20 bucks to just do it the easier way. It's not only easier this time, but works great and faster each time after (for getting an IP from your router versus from your ISP). A normal LAN setup, IMO, features a router and a computer.

The other nicety of getting a router and going that route is if you ever want to hook up more than 1 computer, you are already configured to handle it; and it shares the single internet connection.

Cool

I am not familiar with the SURFboard SB5100, but based on your ISP's comments, I am guessing that it is a standard cable modem. If it works in Windows (I cannot tell from your post), it should work in Linux (as your ISP stated). That is, SUSE just needs to connect to the modem as it would connect to any other external device on a LAN.

If you are using a USB connection rather than an ethernet cable, you may need to select USB when setting up your device in SUSE. That is, if SUSE is expecting to communicate via Ethernet and the modem is expecting a signal via the USB, they will not communicate. (I know this is a simplification, but you get the idea.) To do so, I recall you would go into the YaST Control Center where the network devices are set up and select Network Devices and Network Card. When Network Card is selected, YaST will scan your system and tell you what you have. If you do not have a USB device, you need to create one. (USB will be one of the options when you create a new device.) I hope that helps. Good luck in any case.:)

Thx Cougar,thx Master C,
I connect to XP via USB as I could not via the LAN.There may be a problem with the LAN but suse does not report it.XP had trouble binding the LAN to TCP/IP.
Suse recognises the SURFboard but flashes a warning that there is no drivers for this hardware but there may be in the kernel,do I wish to try?
That is why I wondered if it was a driver issue(at least as far as USB goes)So that is why I went down the LAN route.

BJS

OK. As a guess SUSE is viewing the cable modem as an external USB device--like a printer or something. If I were in your situation, I would have tried to use the Ethernet connection first--as you did. Still, it seems that Windows needs the USB connection, so the modem will only be set up to look at the USB port. (This is a guess on my part, since you are having problems using the Ethernet connection.) If that is a correct summary of the situation and it did not work, I would try connecting via USB and skip adding the "driver from the kernel" (since the device you are using is not a printer, etc.). If that did not work, I would try using the driver. Again, I hope that helps.

thx coguar,
have been doing more research on the modem.I think the problem may be that the USB gives a MAC address different from the LAN.If i type in the DHCP address for the modem9with the modem switched off)it gives me an IP adress,the same IP adress that it gives me for the USB.Then when I switch on the modem(plugged into USB on XP)it connects and gives me an IP from my ISP.If I do the same on a LAN connection it just zeros and I dont connect.According to motorola if the DHCP gives an adress of 192.168.100.11 the connection with the modem and LAN are OK.I think that the trouble may be with my ISP reading 2 MAC adresses.
I will try them at the week end when I have some more time to work on it.


Thx for your help

BJS

Hi,
just to continue the thread,if I wanted to continue using my USB connection(with it's MAC adress)would this config work with suse10?I found it posted on the web somewhere(vintage 2004).

kernel configuration:

CONFIG_USB=y
CONFIG_USB_UCHI_HCD=y
CONFIG_USB_USBNET=y
CONFIG_USB_CDCETHER=y

This is with kernel 2.6.*

and if so how would i go about it?
Using XTERM?

THX
BJS