Hi,

I updated from MDK 9.0 to MDK 9.2. (I know it’s really dorky, but there it is). I can’t connect to the internet in 9.2. I have a 2000 vintage tower computer, PIII 550 MHz. I have a RCA cable modem that connect to my PC tower with a USB cord that runs through an external “EZ Connect USB Fast Ethernet Adapter.” I’ve gone into the Madrake Control Center and run the wizard to configure my internet connections but I don’t know how to fill in the blanks. The wizard detects that I have a LAN connection. I guess that’s right. Then under “Configuring network device etho0(drive Pegasus)” it has “Automatic IP” checked. I guess that’s right too. The next box reads “Proxies configuration” HTTP proxy & FTP proxy. What do I put in there? Where can I get that info. (Windows 98SE is up and running). Also, outside of the Wizard there’s a button on the first dialog box that says “Internet connection configuration.” Pressing that one gets another box that wants “Gateway” to be filled in. Where do I find that out?

Thanks in advance.

Just a thought, but did you by any chance enable the Mandrake Firewall? That sometimes disables the internet connection for some weird reason.

Just checked out the firewall. Went to Control Center --> Security -->Firewall ='s DrakFirewall. "Everything" was checked. All the other boxes below were grayed out. The Advanced option wanted specific ports to be entered. Closed it up. Still no Internet connection.

I don't know how a cable setup differs from DSL, but I do know that every time I've installed Mandrake Linux (which is MANY times, for one reason or another), the "wizard" says I have a LAN connection.

During the installation process this is easy to fix, by using "expert" mode and selecting ADSL and then pppoe and going from there. However, if the system is already installed, the wizard NEVER works right. It refuses to accept ADSL and just stubbornly insists that there's a LAN. I learned finally to get it right during the installation or it would never connect at all.

This troublesome behavior started with version 9.0, I think. Versions 8.0 and 8.2 had wizards that after some coaxing (like going through the process five or six times...) would get the connection right, from within an existing installation.

Again, this is re: DSL not cable, but it might pertain to your problem.

Thanks for this post, jonr. It made me realize that I just have to give up on the "Update" thing. One of the frustrations has been that the Update mode isn't giving me any options, much less, "expert" options. So I just have to get over it and realize it didn't work. It turns out not being able to access the Internet is not the only problem. So, I think I'll try a clean install today. Thanks again.

It puzzles me how one installation will turn out so different from another. I installed 10.1 Official a couple of weeks ago and all sorts of things didn't work and couldn't be fixed (by me, that is).

So I went back to 9.2

Then yesterday as a result of playing around with some Debian variants, to see if I might like those better than Mandrake, I got in some serious trouble and, to make a long story short, ended up with 10.1 installed on a different hard drive and I doubt if I could ever go back to 9.2 if I wanted to.

But this time most things worked OK! The mouse was recognized and configured without any trouble, the CD burner apparently works (I haven't actually tried it yet, but xcdroast set it up with no error messages), my USB devices work fine, I got power-backup monitoring to work with the help of an LQ member, and this morning I even fixed Firefox so I have all my cookies and stuff back--I lost them yesterday because of the stupid way Firefox keeps its settings in the ~/.mozilla directory instead of the smart way in its OWN directory, like Thunderbird does. (Thunderbird transferred over to the new system without a hitch of any kind--I was amazed and relieved.)

So who knows what goes on. Lots of people here, that's who! But they're far smarter than me.

Please post the result of your clean install so we'll know you're OK!

Well, jonr, I'm writing this from 9.2 :-). Of course now there's plenty of this and that that I have to figure out again. It's good for my brain, I'm sure. 9.2 install mode made the Internet connection immediately with no fuss or muss. I'm liking the look of it. For some reason, probably the choices I made in the packaging section, it didn't install kword or kuickshow, but I've taken care of that. One weird thing: so far: There's a couple of directories from 9.0 that remained, at the bottom of which is one .jpg. A self-portrait of course.

If you used the install option "use existing partitions" it will safeguard all your home directory files. Maybe that's the explanation. Only if you say "wipe out entire disk" will it get rid of everything.

Glad you're back in business. I had no complaint whatever with 9.2 and enjoyed using it. The only reasons I moved to 10.1 were (1) I heard there were supposed to be lots of improvements; (2) I didn't want to be left with something that would fairly soon be obsolete. (As though 10.1 won't be obsolete pretty soon anyway...)

If I had my druthers, I'd install something and never change it ever. I just want to use my computer, mainly. But one of the annoying things about computing systems is that you get forced to change now and then whether you need to or not. That part's like Windows. Too bad.