I'm running fedora and its great. only problem is I am a n00b and can't connect to the net. The setup is as follows: eth0 (set to dhcp) plugged into port 1 of my router (cable connection). thats all. I've checked tons of threads with similar topics and lord knows there are a bunch, but i think my problem may be to basic for anyone to ask. I guess the main question is how do i fix my problem? it may be a quick fix, may not. I will add the contents of my ifconfig table, even though i don't know what its purpose is. People just like see it when you post about eth0. I am curious about the "hosts" file. am i suppose to add something in addition to the local host line maybe? well now, i really don't know. Any help would be more than appreciated. Thanks for your time.

ifconfig:

eth0 Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:18B:12:E2
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric: 1
RX Packets: 7 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes: 889 (999.0 b) TX bytes: 3420 (3.3 kb)
Interrupt: 9 Base address: 0x9800

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:4911 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX Packets:4911 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes 3721886 (3.5Mb) TX bytes 3721886 (3.5 Mb)

you don't appear to have an IP address for eth0. Are you sure that your router has a dhcp server? And that you are running a dhcp client? A peek at the output of `route` would also be helpful.

1. Make sure that the cable isn't going into the WAN input of the router, or the Uplink input.
2. Do you have a link light on the router for that switch output and on the NIC.
3. If not, try a different cable.
4. If the cable router is a linksys, with NAT translation ( don't remember the number ) you could set up for a static ip temporarily and point your browser to the router address. Check the manual, it's 192.168.1.1 by defaultl I think. In the web based setup dialogs you can make sure that DHCP is enabled.