Hello, I am having trouble with my internet connection and would like some help.

I wasn't able to use my external USB dial-up modem with Linux, so I did some searching and found a driver for it. It seemed to be working well, I get a connection of 50666 kilobits/second most times I dial, but then after about 4 or 5 minutes, I lose the connection. It doesn't drop, it's still connected, but no data is transferred.

When I use the same modem and phone line with Windows, it works perfectly.

I'm using Slackware 10 and the driver I found is called "slmdm-2.7.14".The modem is a Trust External USB 56k. If you need more information, please ask.

Any ideas? Thank you for reading.

What tool are you using to configure ppp?

Thanks for the response, I'm using KPPP to dial up.

Sounds like a DNS problem, but with KPPP I don't know how to fix it.

I had problems like this awhile back and never did sort them out on one box. Circumstances were slightly different, pci winmodem and I'd only stay connected for two or three minutes. I just stopped using kppp, set up with slackware's pppsetup and then used ppp-on and ppp-off, worked fine after that

I've never used a usb modem and I'd guess it's very micrsoftcentic but here's some random thoughts.

First-off it are you sure that the drivers/modules are OK. Can you load thm with modprobe or insmod without errors? Generic modem modules don't work with all kernels. The best performance on winmodems for me has been when I compiled my own against my own kernel source. That being said I've used lucent chipset modules (for winmodem) for different kernels and loaded them at boot with a script that inserted the modules with "insmod -f"

If the modem is connecting, are you are transfering data both ways? Note the time you drop out and then check your logs for any indications of a problem. I'm on adsl right now so can't check, but I seem to remember that kppp gives you an option to read error messages in the case of a failure and you can usually check the error message number given on the pppd man page. You can only access "man pppd" as root in slackware.

Slackware installs very secure and it's possible that you are having a permission problem. It's not a smart thing to go online as root but a way to check if it's a permission problem is by trying to connect as root. Stay logged in only long enough to decide whether it works OK as root then disconnect!!, then sort out the permissions

That being said I'd usually tell a newbie to use kppp because it's a simple and generally foolproof way to get dial up going.

Following on with gnashley's comment about dns, try configuring your kppp so that "IP" is set for Dynamic IP address, "Gateway" is set for Default, "DNS" is set for Automatic, and in "Dial" omit the leading "www." on your isp's connection name.

Okay, I'll answer your questions in order.

I'm quite new to this business, so how do I use modprobe or insmod to check my drivers? I tried typing them at the command line, but nothing happened.

Yes, the connection is as good as perfect, I can download and upload, but only for a few minutes. I couldn't see any errors in the log, as far as I can see, it just stops transferring data. I have the system monitor running, and the network monitor shows that for the first few minutes everything is fine, but then it just drops down to "Network use: 0%" and stops transferring, with the conections still running.

I just tried connecting as root and the problem doesn't go away, so I suppose that rules out permissions.

All of the things you suggest here are already done by default.


I tried using "pppsetup" but it asked some questions I have no idea how to answer...

Thank you for your suggestions, can you think of anything else it could be?

Thanks.

Probably modprobe and insmod did not work because you were not root. If your using kppp your probably using kde so in konsole enter the command su then when prompted enter your root password and you will now be at the command prompt as root. Now you can use these commands with the module. For example with the ltmodem.o module omit the .o and enter the command insmod ltmodem, Look below. Ive used modprobe with -v (verbose) to get all output when loading the module.

rick@rick:~$ su
Password:
root@rick:/home/rick# modprobe -v lt_modem
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.4.26/ltmodem/lt_modem.o
Using /lib/modules/2.4.26/ltmodem/lt_modem.o
Symbol version prefix ''
Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.26/ltmodem/lt_modem.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - Proprietary
See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Module lt_modem loaded, with warnings
root@rick:/home/rick#

In this case the module was loaded with warnings, but loaded nontheless. I know it'll work because it has on another box with same slack version and kernel.

If your happy that its working then its a matter of why does it stop? Have you checked for error messages in /var/log/debug, /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog at or around the time you connect and drop off? BTW do you get a kppp popup window asking you if you want to see the error messages when you drop out or does it just go dead? Not sure but I think you'd only get that if the ppp daemon died but not sure.

Running ppp-on in konsole might give you some messages/insight into the problem but you'll need to run pppsetup to configure first everything first. At the risk of being accused of self promotion may I suggest you go here http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rick...lup_setup.html and see how to set things up for cli dialup without kppp? You have to run netconfig and pppsetup as root and your user permissions might not let you dialup as a user but you can test as root with caution as I discussed in my previous post

I never thought to ask if you've run netconfig but you might try doing that to if you haven't and maybe again if you have. Its also covered on the above webpage.

I'm just working things through by process of elimination not much different than what I'd do myself.