ping problems
 

For those newbies who have problems here is list of things I encountered.
I had problems. I was able to ping the inside address of my router but nothing on the internet.
Here are the steps I took:
Commands used :ifconfig, route, ping, netconfig.

After configuring you network interface (usually eth0) :
1. check ifconfig
look for an IP,number, netmask, and status of UP.
2. check route
look to see if an IP number is in the gateway column.
3. use ping to check for connectivity.
ping the IP found in ifconfig for eth0. If that works try pinging the router or Gateway IP. Try 'ping'ing the name of a site. Please be aware that the number of attempts to be can be usually controlled by the -c# parameter. I was used to the standard MS DOS/Windows only attempting 4 times. Also CTRL-C will usually break the continuous ping.
Example: ping -c5 somewhere.com 'or' ping -c5 127.0.0.1
4. Try traceroute to a known good name and the IP.

I used netconfig in Slackware 10.0 to setup. I also specified a DHCP Server. DHCP is a service which automatically provides a computer/network interface with an IP number. If came up with a good IP.
Why am I describing this? Well, in some ways, I am a newbie. In others, I have 30 years of technical experience. The syntax of OS can be more of a problem than the hardware for me.

My problem was I could ping my internal IP & the Gateway IP but nothing on the internet. BUT traceroute worked. I believe it is something with my ISP preventing ping through the ICMP protocol (?). I thought a web browser wouldn't work but when I brought up kde, it worked just fine.
So if ping doesn't work on the outside IPs but works on the inside, try traceroute. If it works, just bring up your web browser and try.

I hope this helps others in the future

LEdwardts:newbie:

very interesting.
Maybe you'll consider writing up a diagnoistic tutorial and posting it in Linux Answers