Hi guys, I have just installed Slackware after trying many others such as Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, Susi, Mandrake. Thought I would see what Slackware was like. All installed okay but cannot configure my broadband internet connection. I am using NTL Home with a USB modem. The system appears to find the modem during boot up. Other distros such as Red Hat on completion of the install had found and automatically configured my internet. I guess Slackware can't do this but if someone can help I would appreciate it.

Cheers.

atko.

If you need help getting a piece of hardware to work it's usually a good idea to tell people the make and model.

Make & Model of the modem is a ntl home 100 cable modem according to their website. Have checked the modem itself and that is all thats on it too. I seem to think linux recognises it as an ambient modem or something like that from memory on boot. Sorry cant be more specific.

Run netconfig and set to dhcp if the modem provides dhcp server services. Be sure to ident the "Default Gateway" ip, i.e. 192.168.1.1
Once you have done this do a su term or as root in a console
cd /etc/rc.d
check the inet1.conf
<inet1.conf>
# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]="" # if static ip enter addy here. if dhcp enter nothing
NETMASK[0]="" #if static ip enter 24 bit netmask here. if dhcp enter nothing
USE_DHCP[0]="" #if dhcp enter "yes" here. if static enter nothing
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]="" #in all cases append HOSTNAME here

<edited>
# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY="" # in all cases enter gateway ip here

The above assumes you have not configure the iptables yet. Once you have inet access you will need to configure the firewall accordingly...
Also if you are NOT using dhcp and are setting up ip static you will need to edit the /etc/resolv.conf and add your ISPs nameservers otherwise dhcp writes this itself when you run netconfig, reboot, restart inetd, or upon getting a new lease.
It is also a good idea to add your gateway to the hosts file IF your gateway has the ability to be named and a domain setting
<syntax>
192.168.1.1 gateway.foobar.mynet gateway

Apologies but am confused with your reply. In netconfig it asks you for the name of the host (assume your pc name), the name of your domain (assume in my case ntlworld.com) and one other, can't remember what it is now but I think it is your username the isp gives you (tried this as the default without and with). That is all it asks. It does not ask for anything else such as default gateways, etc.

This seems to suggest that you need to set it up as an ethernet modem, not USB http://www.linuxcompatible.org/cdetail10319.html

I have the NTL modem and could never get it to work with USB. Recommendations on this board were to use ethernet - which I did. The whole thing was (and is) autodetected by all the installs I have run and dhcp assigns my ip address.

I was also told that the ethernet connection is faster and more stable than usb - all I can say is that my net connection has never given me a problem.

Don't delay, remove the sticker from your modem's ethernet port today

The relevant files would seem to be:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf

This is from my /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf:

# If USE_DHCP[interface] is set to "yes", this overrides any other settings.

# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]=""
NETMASK[0]="255.255.255.0"
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""

This was created by /sbin/netconfig and is probably all you need.
I doubt if you even need to set the NETMASK.

Then running rc.inet1 "should" connect you.

Some things to check --
1. dhcpcd needs to be installed
2. is the network card recognized? Run ifconfig and see if there is an "eth0" listing.

The ntl modem can be used with USB.
For 2.6.x kernels: modprobe usbnet
For 2.4.x kernels: modprobe CDCEther

Altho i agree wholly that ethernet is much better, USB is still a possibility

Regards, Sam

If you already have a NIC in your box there should be no reason to use USB. USB modems were invented so that cable/DSL ISP's didnt have to supply you a NIC as long as you didnt ask for it and since the majority of their customers were on Windows (and they wont install your modem unless you are) the USB port makes their job quick and dirty. Do yourself a favor and go to bestbuy and pick up some cheap Linksys 10/100 NIC for as low as $10 on some days and end your networking problems.

Also if you ever want to share your internet with other users, you are most definitely going to want to use ethernet because 99.9% of the routers out there require ethernet for the WAN port that goes to your modem.

Sorry to bump this thread but it's exactly what I'm stuck with atm. I just finished my first linux install, after setting mandrake aside I decided on slackware 10.0. Anyway..
I'm sick of having to reboot to XP all the time for advice and help from here and the rest of the net. Basically I can't configure my usb cable modem to be my network device. It is the same NTL 100 modem ( Ambit USB cable modem ) as above.
Thing is that it is recognised as a USB device but it is not listed as a potential internet connection. ifconfig lists only eth1 (my realtek NIC which connects to my other comp) and 'lo' ( says loopback ), but no eth0. How is it possible to make linux use the usb modem to connect to the net?
One other thing is that I have a supposed dynamic ip, but in reality it is static as it's only changed once in the 18 months that I've had it. So when I run netconfig do I use the static or dhcp routes? I have tried both but neither worked.
All the details I have for my connection I got from XP ie. physical address, IP, subnet mask, Gateway ip, dhcp addy and dns. Do i require any more info than that, and finally, do I need to enter anything specidic for the Host/domain name options or can I just use whatever I like?
If I could just get internet enabled I would use linux most of the times

With USB modems and linux Im fairly sure you need to find linux drivers that will tell the kernel, hey this is a network device! Without it, you are pretty much screwed. Although I hear you can buy a regular NIC, then get a USB=>Ethernet converter and then plug that into the extra NIC on your box. That should work fine as long as the NIC is supported and just about anything you can buy off the shelf today is.

Even though your ip is pseudo-static I would still use DHCP because dhcp gives you more info than just an IP, it also gives you your subnet, gateway and dns servers.