I just received my new Billion 7404VGP modem router and have my first ADSL account active. I just cannot get my Mandrake 10 system to connect to the Internet. My Windows XP system (I have dual OS for situations like this) recognized everything straight up, I just changed the DNS server numbers and it all worked.
However I am having trouble getting the "Mandrake control centre" to get the connection working.
I used the "create a new connection" tool to no avail.

I then used the "manage connections" tool to see what the result of trying to create a new connection was.
Under TCP/IP tab "manage connections" tool should I have DHCP or static selected?

The "manage connection" tools page also says;

IP address - 192.16X.X.X (not sure if I should reveal this here?) -What is this string supposed to be? Does it have anything to do with my ISP?

Netmask - 255.255.XXX.X (not sure what this string should be)

Gateway - nothing shown here

DNS Servers - 192.16X.X.XXX (similar to the IP address string shown on this page - but not the DNS number I entered when creating the new connection). This cannot be edited here anyway.

Search domain - localhost (cannot be edited here).

I then select OK and get out of "manage connections" and go back to the "Mandrake control centre" page. Everthing is now frozen. Every tool I try and use here now totally freezes when selected (Loading, Please Wait...... forever).

I get out of "Mandrake control centre" and find that NO application will now run. My whole system is frozen.

I am totally lost. How do I get connect to the Internet?
The connection is via my ethernet port.

I don't like wizards, it is difficult to understand what they modify. I have been running Mandrake and Mandriva for a long time. I installed WebMin a long time ago, and do all my network configuration with it.

Understand, to get this working, you have to configure the router, as well as your system. If windoze is working, then I would bet everything is still defaulted in your router. Is that correct?

That probably means the router is running as a DHCP server. The default in windoze is 'obtain an address automatically' ( or some such words...).

This is your choice. If you have machines coming and going, ( laptops ) then DHCP is more convenient. Usually the default subnet on your side will be 192.168.0.x with a mask of 255.255.255.0. With that said, that is fine, although, for security reasons, it is wise to alter to say 192.168.xxx.z. The value of xxx can be anything from 0 to 254. The netmask should be 255.255.255.0 that is probably the default, and no need to change it.

Gateway, that is the IP address of the router where on the side your systems connect to. So, if you select sub-net 192.168.1.x then the default gateway would be 192.168.1.1. If it is sub-net 192.168.2.x then GW would be 192.168.2.1 and so on.

The DNS servers you get from your ISP. Most routers will pass the DNS addresses to the systems connected. There is a configuration option to cause this, it is usually set on. On my router if I connect to it, I can display the DNS addresses. In linux you put the DNS addresses in the /etc/resolv.conf file. They will not be in the range of 192.168.xxx.yyy.

Most routers are configured with a web browser form any system on your system side. Connect a system, doesn't matter what OS it is, open a web browser, and put an address like 192.168.0.1 in the location bar, press send. 192.168.0.1 is by far the most common default address for this, until the user changes the sub-net. Try it, you probably will get some kind of a log on screen. The documentation for the router should tell you to log on.

Why Mandy is locking up I have no idea from what you said. See if you can re-boot and try my suggestions. Webmin can be installed from the install CD's or from URPMI, but since your internet isn't working, use the CD's. Update it after you get things going.

In Webmin there is a networking tab. There you can set the IP address for your system, or select DHCP, your choice. You can enter DNS addresses, and gateway. Simple, fast, it works.

I tried to install webmin via Mandrake Control Centre. This attempt resembled a multi car pile up. It seemed that the package installation tool under Mandrake Control Centre tried to access the Internet when webmin was selected for installation, and many errors resulted. It didn't even ask me to put any disks in, as the package installer has done in the past.
Maybe this was due to the fact that I recently did some updating using the tool at;
http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
To be honest what this did eludes me. I thought it downloaded rpms for later installation. Why does the package installer now need to access the Internet? When I used the tool at Easy URPMI it did some huge downloads, what they were I have no idea. I thought they were rpm or tarballs of applications.

I have found using urpmi problematic anyway. I had bad experiences trying to install Firefox and Thunderbird using this method. See;
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=478002

My next step is to download webmin using my dialup connection and install it from a tarball and try to get ADSL connectivity up and running using webmin. The Mandrake control centre seems totally useless in assisting with this task, not to mention the errors and system freezes that have resulted from using it.

By the way, is there any way of copying and pasting the text contained in error message windows? This would be handy in explaining my problems. Transcribing them manually is too laborious.

If you used the EasyUrmpmi tool, then yes it will access the internet ( or try to ) to get packages to install. Since your internet connection is not working, you can go into MCC and delete the information URPMI put there, and add back the information for the CD's. It will then ask you for the CD's for installation.

I would recommend that you get a binary straight from Mozilla to install Firefox and FIrebird. There are .mdk files on the mirrors, but they are several levels behind. For what ever reason, Mandriva is slow getting newer packages available for Mozilla products. The binary files are not difficult to install. There are install instructions on their site where you download the binary files from. Once you have the ADSL connection running, we can go through that.

If you attempt to download Webmin, get a .mdk package from Mandriva, or one of the mirrors. Compiling a tar ball is probably a challenge you don't need right now. You need a bunch of other stuff installed just to compile the tar ball. Only do that once your skill level has improved, and you understand the implications.

You bet, just did it... How you say?

If you click on the 'Post Reply' button, and edit window opens. At the top of the window you will see two rows of icons ( little boxes ). If you hover your pointer over each box, you will see a prompt pop up. Forth from the right, bottom row is the Quote button. Click it once, some coding gets inserted in your edit window. Simply go to the window you want to copy from, mark the data, and do a ctrl c to copy, that is the control key and the letter c key at the same time. Navigate back to the edit window, place the cursor between the quote coding, and insert the text. Simple and fast. Lots of buttons to play with...

I'm not sure why you are struggling with MCC, it works very well on my machine. There may be some issue on your box. I simply don't like the wizard for configuring connections. I have seen posts where it just doesn't work for all people. The options then are to edit the fils directly, or install a tool like WebMin. I prefer WebMin because you can configure many services and servers with one tool, either locally at the machine or remotley form another machine. All you need for the remote connection is a working connection, and a web browser on the client machine, doesn't matter what OS. The rest is having a user and password to access the target Webmin machine.

If you can't get WebMin installed right now, post back, I'll see if I can figure out the files for direct editing.

Thanks.
Firstly, I knew about the Ctrl C method of copying, but when an error window appears on my system, I cannot highlight the text in it with the mouse. It seems to be unreachable by the cursor. No amount of clicking and dragging will allow highlighting of text in the error window.
Second, I eventually got FF and TB installed from a tarball file.
Third, how do I undo whatever using the tool at Easy URPMI did to my system, and stop my box trying to access the Internet every time I try and install a new package? Or is the package installer only trying to access the Internet for packages that were not on the original disks? If the package chosen was on the original disks, would the package installer ask me to insert a disk like it did for many previous packages I have installed, or because of my URPMI fiddlings, will the package update tool now always go to the Internet? It seems that for some reason whenever the package installer now goes to the Internet, there are massive problems (I tried it this time using my dial up connection). How do I undo what I did when I did all that downloading and installing from Easy URPMI? It seems to have done something bad to the package installer tool.

I'm not sure why you can not hilight text in a konsole. I hold down the left mouse button, and drag the pointer over the text. That works on any application, including the konsole.

Your machine is going to the internet because you picked network mirrors. I would bet you don't have any entries for your CD's. Once they are gone, ( usually this is a good thing ) the system will go to the mirrors for the packages.

To stop that behaviour, you can open MCC-->Software Management-->Select from Where Packages Are Downloaded. You should have opened a window called Media Manager. There shoud be a list of things like 'Main' 'Contrib' 'Updates'. Each one defines the location to find packages. Updates are where the fixes to bugs go after a fix is released.

If you click on one, and click edit, you should see a pop up defining a 'URL' and a 'Relative Location'. Look at one, and you will see the URL on the internet of the mirror where the code is. So if you try to install 'webmin' and it is in main, (BTW I don't know which one webmin is in) the system tries to go to that URL. I don't want to ever have to fumble for a CD; much too windoze like. I deleted all my CD entries.

So, to stop it going to the internet, delete the entries that go there. I think there are instructions on the Madrake Users board on how to restore your CD entries. I have never had to do it, but I'm sure it can be done.

I'll see if I can find a set of instructions, and post them.

Thanks again. I had another go at configuring the connection using Mandrake Control Centre, to no avail. Here is what I did, maybe this will reveal a mistake I made;

Create new connection>>I select ADSL. LAN connection was also an option here.
Net Device>>eth0 is only option
Connect to the Internet>>I select PPPoE. DHCP, Manual TCP/IP, PPPoA and PPPTP are other options.
Connection configuration>>
I enter a name that represents the ISP to me in the Provider name field. The field title here is actually;
"Provider Name (ex provider.net)", what this means eludes me. Is this an important field to get right?
I enter the Primary DNS server string my ISP provided.
I enter the Secondary DNS server string my ISP provided.
I enter the username and password for the ISP account.

The system then paused for 3 minutes while a window said "installing packages" and then "initializing".
It then asked if I wanted to start connection at boot, I select yes.
It then asked if I wanted to restart the network, I select yes.
I am then congratulated on creating the connection and told to restart X. I reboot the computer.

Firefox or Mozilla cannot connect.
I go back to MCC and select "Monitor connections".
Under eth0 it says "not connected".
I select the "connect" button.
For a while it says "connecting to the internet" then for about 0.25 of a second a message appears "connection completed", this is quickly replaced by "not connected".

I go back to MCC and select "manage connections".
Under "ADSL" it says;
IP address 192.168.1.1
Netmask 255.255.255.0
DNS servers 192.168.1.254 (NOTE THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS EITHER OF THE DNS STRINGS I ENTERED DURING "CREATE CONNECTION")
Search Domain localhost

Under "eth0" it says;
IP address 192.168.1.1
Netmask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.1
DNS servers 192.168.1.254 (NOTE THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS EITHER OF THE DNS STRINGS I ENTERED DURING "CREATE CONNECTION")Search Domain localhost

After reading your last post, I went to www.billion.com and downloaded the user manual for your modem/router. I want you do do the same, unless you have a hard copy. Here is the link:

http://www.billion.com/product/voip/bipac7404vgp.htm

Note, the left side of the page is where you will download the user manual from.

You never answered this question I asked in my first post. Have you done any configuring on the router?

There are instructions on how to connect to your router so you can configure it and display status etc. Basically, open a web browser on your system, doesn't matter what OS. In the address bar, type 192.168.1.254 and press enter, the router will send back a log on screen. User default is admin and the default password is admin. Be sure to change them, and don't forget what you did.

From your last post; you selected PPPoE on your mandriva. Your router default is also PPPoE. You only need to have one machines doing the PPPoE function, it is probably easier to allow the router to do it, then any machines you connect to the router do not need PPPoE as well. Note, your ISP will tell you if they require you to use PPPoE, not all do, and your only chance at success is to get this right. So you may want to check with them,unless you are absolutely sure you know.

Most ISP's also require you to send a user and password when the router connects on the ISP side. This is configured in the router. You need to set that up, or verify your settings are correct.

The default IP address of the router on your side is set to 192.168.1.254. See page 17 of the setup guide. The ISP side is set to aquire an IP address from your ISP. That is fine, as long as that is what your ISP is doing. ( You many need to check with ISP here ). The router configuration starts on page 19 of the setup guide.

Now, since your system has an ip address of 192.168.1.1, your system is in the same sub-net as the router, this is a good IP address. If you are set for DHCP in linux, then the range of addresses the routers DHCP server is sending out is no longer 'factory settings'. Not a problem, unless you want to change it for some reason. The default is 100 addresses starting as 192.168.1.100.

So, to prove you have connectivity with the router, open a konsole, and do a ping, it will look like this:

Note : I did this and my routers address is 192.168.1.1, just do a 'ping 192.168.1.254' on your system. If that works, then you have IP connectivity with your router.

Next, the default gateway in linux should be set to 192.168.1.254 on your system; unless you modify the IP address of the router. There is no need to do that.

DNS- These are provided by your ISP. Most routers will pass the DNS addresses to your attached systems. If that is working, just leave it alone. The setup guide will tell you if that is the case. Some allow you to set the ISP addresses in the router.

The 'Provider Name' is the domain name your ISP uses. That may matter. I would make it match what your ISP is using.

So, let me see if I can summarize this.

Your router has two sides, one to the ISP, the WAN ( ADSL) side, and the LAN side, IP address 192.168.1.254.

You only want to do PPPoE once, the router is the best place, and that is the default. You need to check the Username/password in the router.

Linux, you can use DHCP here to get things going. In the long term, I would recommend you change to fixed IP addressing for any machines you always have connected. This makes things like file sharing and printer sharing much easier.

Linux IP address - 192.168.1.1
Default Gateway - 192.168.1.254
DNS- set by your ISP.

See if you can get this configured, and let me know what happens.

Thanks for such detailed help. I will now go back to my Linux OS and give it a try. Sorry for not answering your question about router (is it a modem, a router or a modem/router?) configuration. Yes, I did fully configure the router via the browser and everything works perfectly under WindowsXP. I use Linux 99% of the time so I am eager to get ADSL up and running on Linux.

Good, I'll wiat for your next post.

I got it working without using webmin. I deleted the ADSL connection I had created and started again, all via Mandrake Control Centre.
This time when creating a new connection I chose ADSL as the type of connection in the first window presented by the Wizard.

In the next window I chose the only net device presented: eth0

In the next window which asked about connection type I think I made a decision that was critical to my success. I chose manual TCP/IP configuration rather than PPPoE, as I remember you said that the modem/router looks after PPPoE and you don't do it twice. I wasn't entirely sure what this meant but I had a vague idea that the modem/router is doing a lot of stuff the PC can alternatively do. I then filled out the next few details about IP address and Gateway as per your instructions and hey presto, it all worked!

Can you recommend any references on reading up on this whole networking/internet connectivity subject? How the various levels of software and hardware interact seems quite complex and I would like to educate myself.

Is there a tool you can use to watch the speed of data flowing through the router? I would also like the connection not to start at boot, I would rather have it connect when I choose. Is there a simple tool that can facilitate this? I don't like the idea of being connected all the time when I don't need to be, paranoid I guess. Perhaps I need to now start looking into firewalls and security tools?

Thank you very much for your help, you have saved the day.

I'm happy to hear you have had success.

Absolutley correct. Your modem/router does do PPPoE and that is the default configuration, and yes, you only want to do that in one place. I woud suspect this was your main problem.

This is a difficult one to answer, I have spent more than 25 years working around networking, mostly with IBM products, but more recently teaching 'how to fix' and do problem determination. I have looked at a lot of documentation on this topic. It can get very complex in a hurry. I would suggest for someone needing to understand their home network, and hoe to trouble shoot it, look at the Linux Wiki on this board as a starting point. Here is the url. http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Networking

It has some very good suggestions, showing the commands to use and a good approach to finding ou what is working, and what is not working.

Generally, the only way of monitoring speed at the router would require an external trace tool. This is usually too expensive for the home user. What I would suggest you look at is; go to MCC-->Networking and Internet-->Monitoring the Connections. There is a monitoring tool that shows the throughput of the host connection on your linux system. At least this is included in Mandriva. For most users, it show throughput.

This same tool can be used to control the interface. I added an icon in my bar at the bottom of teh screen. It is called NetApplet. If you want to add it, right click the bar, --> Add to Panel -->Application-->System-->Monitoring-->NetApplet. Once it is installed you can simply look at the throughput, configure the interface, connect or disconnect it.

Your router is a firewall, so you are fairly safe with any machines connected behind the firewall. Security is something everyone should think about, and do what ever they think needs to be done. I do not run a second firewall on my home network, except on winbloze XP machines. With windoze you can never bee too safe, since the code is full of easily vilolated holes. Just remember if you turn on the windoze firewall, and then want to do file sharing or printer sharing, ftping you have a firewall, and you may need to open a port for the service to work.

Linux, because of permissions, and the general lack of linux viruses, is fairly safe. Keep the security fixes up to date. Just get URPMI working and update on a regular basis.

Mandriva also has a setting for security. There is a paranoid setting. I'm not at all sure it is required behind a firewall. That is something you will need to decide for your self.

Last thought, if you set up any wireless networking, be sure you use encryption for the wireless connections. Also, if you have not already done it, change the default password on your router. There are hackers out there that will attack your IP address, and try the default user and password for the router to see if they can get control of your machine. Enough said...

Hope this helps.

By the way KSnapshot is sometimes useful when you can't otherwise copy the error window

Thanks again for such a detailed response.
The "monitor connections" window for eth0 in MCC seems to work but the graphic representation of data flow is quite cheap and nasty, furthermore the message at the bottom of this window permanently says "Not connected". Weird, but not really a concern. By the way what is the sit0 connection that the MCC "connection monitoring" window shows?

My "add to panel" menu is a little different to yours. The menu progression is "add to panel", "internet" ("application" not an option here) and then I chose "modem lights". I remember using modem lights a few years ago on my dial up connection. However when the "modem lights" graphic monitoring tool appears on the panel it is dead. I open the preferences window for "modem lghts" and the settings are as follows;
Under general - "connect command" = pppon & "disconnection command" = pppoff
Under advanced - "Device" = ppp0, "Lock file" = /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0, "Verify owner of lock file" is checked & "Use ISDN" in unchecked.

Can "Modem Lights" do the job of connecting, disconnecting and monitoring my eth0/ADSL connection? If so how would I modify the preferences?

As for URPMI, I have had nothing but trouble with package installation under RPMDrake since I visited
http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
and used the tool there. Whenever I try to add packages now, RPMDrake goes to the Internet (it never used to) and ends up with multiple errors about not being able to find required files. It doesn't seem give instructions such as "insert CD No.3" as it used to. Not sure what I have done to RPMDrake. But that is another story I guess. Providing I can get RPMDrake/URPMI working (are they the same thing, they seem to interact to some extent?), what are the updates named that relate to security which I should be installing periodically?

The idea about changing the username & password on the router makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

I will also try to get hold of KSnapshot. It is strange how I cannot highlight text in error windows.

Sit0 - See this post for an explanation. It is for IPv6. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...highlight=sit0

The Modem Lights is for modems, that is not the correct application. I'm guessing here, I don't think you have the application installed. From the rest of yoru post it looks like it is time to fix up URPMI.

Since your setup for URPM isn't working, I think you should delete all entries, and set it up again. To delete your entries, you can go to MCC and Sofware Management, and Select From Where Software Packages are Downloaded. Select each entry you have and delete it.

Go to Easy URPMI and add them back, one at a time. You should wind up with at least Main, Contrib, Updates, Jpackage, plf-free and plf-nonfree. Pay particular attention to which mirror you choose. I have found from experience the ones in France work very well, and are rarley offline.

The security updates come from the 'Updates' mirror. There is an icon in mcc called 'Look at available updates and apply fixes or upgrades to installed packages' Once you have a good mirror configured, that should work. You will get a question each time you run it about contacting the mirror. Allow it to, it needs to retrieve a list of the latest updates. It will list all available updates for your installed packages. I usually just click on 'All' and let it run. The amout of time will depend how out of date you are. First time it may take a while.

I will see if I can figure what package you need to get the 'Net Applet' installed.