Congratulations. It really isn't too difficult, it's just different from windows, and sometimes a bit "clunkey", but trust me, it's worth it in the end. And you have now mastered "vi for noobs"

Ubuntu has this thing where it "just assumes" you have several interfaces for connecting to the internet.
eth0 is the usual one (this should refer to a cabled ethernet interface)
eth1 should be the second (cabled) ethernet interface, if it exists.
ath0 and wlan0 refer to (something) and a wireless connection - hence the w in wlan0 ("Wireless Local Area Network"), but my kubuntu has named my wireless connection eth1 - I do not care, so long as it works. The names don't matter too much, so long as the system & I know what is what.

Ubuntu is trying to connect any-old-how, and mostly, this works. You probably do not have an eth1, or any of the others, but this doesn't matter: non-configured interfaces will be ignored.
But you don't seem to be properly connected yet. We can fix this (eventually). Something tells me you did not install with everything connected up and turned on. I have learnt to do this with linux installations: Connect everything (printer, modem, scanner, camera - the whole lot) and turn it all on. Then boot from the install disk. It'll (probably) find everything and magically make it all work. If you omitted this step, further manual configuration will be necessary, as we are doing. Put this down to a "learning experience"

Your /etc/network/interfaces file looks good. Please do not use any GUI "Network managers" to tweak it, or we might have to go back to square one.

This points to a DNS (Domain Name Server) problem. When you put in http://somewhere.com your PC should ask your ISP for the IP address of somewhere.com. The answer will be 4 numbers like this 268.233.99.44 Then your PC will send a request to 268.233.99.44 and be connected to somewhere.com.
All this is handled by DHCP (as we specified in the /etc/network/interfaces file).
When that file is read, your ISP should be asked for the address of their Domain Name Server. This should be saved in the file /etc/resolv.conf so domain names can be resolved into their IP addresses by contacting the IP address of your ISP's Domain Name Server.
So, please reboot and then post the output of cat /etc/resolv.conf and ifconfig
Your ISP's DNS server should be listed in /etc/resolv.conf, if not, we'll have to find out why not.

I gave you a poor link to "basic linux". Sorry, I just googled and pasted the first link without reading it first - too busy.

Try these, they are better:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tille.garrels.be/training/tldp/index.html

Those lines we deleted contained me isp's correct address etc. Now it is trying for some default address, as you can see, which does not connect to anything. - All my printers etc etc & modem power up when I turn on computer. Ubuntu had a resident driver for my Canon ink jet printer, so I installed that & it works fine. - Not so the Canon FB630P scanner, which, via correct factory supplied cables, shares LPT1 with the printer. Checking the Canon web site, they have a Linux driver for it, so not so urgent. ---- Also connected, is a Brother MFC4800 laser printer/fax. -- Ubuntu identified it correctly and prompted me to install driver. - The trouble is, it does not list a driver for the 4800, & tried to get me to install driver for an MFC6550. - I declined. The Brother web site also has a free Linux driver for this item, so I thought: get the modem going, then start getting updates & drivers. I notice amongst the updates for Ubuntu is one for the "volume" (audio). This definitely needs a fix. Out of the box, it is dreadful! Anyway, look at these.


laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:F3:FD:942
inet addr:58.104.2.35 Bcast:58.104.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::218:f3ff:fefd:94d2/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:67 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0


laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
search domain.invalid
nameserver 10.1.1.1
nameserver 10.1.1.1
laurence@laurence-desktop:~$

NOTE: 10.1.1.1 is, I think, according to stuff I wrote down early in things, the dhcp server.
The Brother printer is connected via USB.

Earlier, I had written down the address, gateway etc etc with info taken from the settings in Firefox, in Win XP. I thought, on installation, these settings would carry over to Firefox under Ubuntu, but not so. The trouble (blessing?) is that Ubuntu set itself up to dual boot, on a new hard drive I installed. This process was taken care of by Ubuntu automatically, and it works well, but Windows can no longer see my drive "J", because Ubuntu hides it from Windows. - It is however possible to use Ubuntu to look at files etc in Windows. - Very crafty.!

Your PC does not need your ISPs address: The modem/router takes care of that (or should!).
The way it should work is this: You turn on your Speedstream. It connects to your ISP. It asks your ISP for an IP address. This will be in the ranges of internet address IP numbers. Your Speedstream will also ask your ISP for the address(es) of their DNS server(s).
You turn on your PC. It connects to your router, and asks it for an IP address. This address is allocated by your router's DHCP server and should be in one of the ranges allocated for a private LAN. These must be in one, and only one of the following ranges:
Its manual says that the default LAN address for your Speedstream is 192.168.254.254
DHCP arranges things such that your nameserver's address should be the address of your router (192.168.254.254 if you have not changed the default). When your PC asks the router at 192.168.254.254 to look up an IP address, the router asks your ISPs DNS, and then sends the answer back to your PC

But from the output you posted, this is not happening:
ifconfig says your eth0 has address 58.104.2.35 which is wrong, because it is not in one of the ranges for a private LAN (see the three ranges above).
And resolv.conf says your nameserver is at 10.1.1.1 This may be correct, if you have changed the default IP address of your router, but the network still will not work because the address of your eth0 is 58.104.2.35 which is on the "wrong subnet". It should have an address like 10.1.1.2 to work if your router is at 10.1.1.1
So I think there is something mis-configured in your modem/router.
Before I ask you to press its reset button, and reconfigure it from scratch, please answer these:
1] Does your ISP allocate you a static IP address (this would be unusual)
2] Please try sudo ifdown eth0 and then sudo dhclient eth0 What is the output of the second command?
If the second command "gets stuck", you can abort it with Ctrl-c
3] If the second command works, and you are allocated a dhcp lease, please then post all the output relating to the granting of a dhcp lease and the output of ifconfig and cat /etc/resolv.conf

I hope you have resisted the temptation to use any network GUIs that might have modified the interfaces file you so carefully edited. I am relying on it staying the same.

I am aware you are having printer and scanner problems, but these can wait until your net(doesn't)work is working. One step at a time

Not really "crafty". This is expected behaviour. What was your "J" drive is now a linux partition with ubuntu, which windows will completely ignore. But as you have found, linux is quite happy to show you what is on your windows drive(s). If you have windows drives formatted as NTFS, linux may not allow you to write to them, as NTFS is still poorly understood (and microsoft will not tell us how it works), although support is getting better all the time. FAT16 and FAT32 partitions have been correctly handled by linux (read & write) for years now.

Tempting as it has been, I have not touched the GUI since our last communication. I have a basic intro to Linux, Australian production, reprints of articles from a U.K. publisher. It is scant, but covers the basics of all the current distro's. It also has a scant section on the command line, and whilst it does not go into too much detail, it does indeed make mention of vi, or vim, so I was not too afraid to use this, especially when I found I could use dd to delete line by line, which is what I did.
Don't know where or how I got those other numbers. Checked Firefox in Windows again, --- no proxy settings etc, just a tick in the box "Direct connection to the internet." Love Firefox; have never used anything else since I got it; didn't even need to read a "how to" manual to use it. It is great!

laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ sudo ifdown eth0
Password:
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 5177
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:18:f3:fd:94:d2
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:18:f3:fd:94:d2
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
send_packet: Network is unreachable
send_packet: please consult README file regarding broadcast address.
laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ sudo ifdown eth0
ifdown: interface eth0 not configured
laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ sudo dhclient eth0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:18:f3:fd:94:d2
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:18:f3:fd:94:d2
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPOFFER from 10.1.1.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 10.1.1.1
SIOCADDRT: Network is unreachable
bound to 58.104.52.13 -- renewal in 59 seconds.
laurence@laurence-desktop:~$

P.S: Screenshot failed; WINDOZE chose to save it in a Paint Shop Pro 9 file, which I can not send in Linux. --- Looks nice, but not compatible. Maybe this in fact is what NTFS is all about.

Interface Wired Internet (eth0)
Speed 100mb/s
Driver Via Rhine


IP Address 58.104.52.13
Broadcast Address 58.104.52.255
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Default Route 211.31.137.131
Primary DNS 10.1.1.1
Secondary DNS 10.1.1.1
Hardware Address 00:18:F3:FD:942

This is the info when I right click on the connection Icon, top of screen in UBUNTU.
P.S. TAKE THE CONNECTION SPEED NOT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, BUT A HANDFUL OF IT!!!!!!!!!
PPS: I have clicked on "No Icons, but that screwy face keeps comming up over the text.It is obscuring 942 (upper case d)

IFCONFIG:
laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:F3:FD:94:D2
inet addr:58.108.6.5 Bcast:58.108.6.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::218:f3ff:fefd:94d2/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1770 (1.7 KiB) TX bytes:4325 (4.2 KiB)
Interrupt:21 Base address:0xb400

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:100 (100.0 b) TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

laurence@laurence-desktop:~$

CAT ETC:
laurence@laurence-desktop:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp


laurence@laurence-desktop:~$

You cannot get an internet connection with linux because your Speedsteam is not set up properly. The fault lies in your modem setup, not the ubuntu config files. You seem to have changed many of the modem's defaults, and now it probably needs a hard reset (manual page 61) to restore them to something sane. Then you should be able to connect to it with http://192.168.254.254 (its default address, see manual page 9), if more needs setting up, or you may find that it just "starts working" after a hard reset.

I suggest you do a google search for threads referring to setting up your modem with linux - other people seem to have managed it (eg here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=581653)

Would not explain why it still works perfectly with Win. XP. - Must say, the book is new to me; I did not get this, just a disc which I did not run 'cos it worked out of the box, as soon as I plugged in the ethernet cable. Have just checked the disc and it is full of garbage re places to visit on my isp's site. I reckon there is a fair chance they have inserted the info & addresses you see, but when I phone their help desk, I am told "Sorry, We only support Internet Explorer". So I get nowhere. I worry that hitting the reset will leave the unit in an unusable state, even in XP. I notice there are 2 versions of the book; the general Seimens one, and the one for Optus customers. (My ISP). I hit the links to bring up the setup pages & got error 404, moved or taken down, so I will have to start going through the 100% Seimens book. The addresses displayed in the info I sent will doubtless be the handiwork of Optus.

Could it possibly be a firewall problem, or something my isp has done??

XP does some weird things. Some people like it because it (usually) "just works". I hate it because if it doesn't "just work", you have absolutely no idea why is isn't working, or how to fix it. But it is possible that XP is using ppp to connect. You could try running sudo pppoeconf in a terminal and see if that helps. Personally, I'd rather reset / troubleshoot the modem and make it work properly with the interfaces file we had set up earlier. Before you try this, it would be a good idea to make a backup of the file you managed to edit with vi, in case pppoeconf messes things up badly. Hint:
No, it should still work.
"Book"? Do you mean User Manual? I wish you had told me that earlier, as your "Optus" model is quite different from the regular model. Also, the manual page numbers I referred to earlier are for the regular Speedstream, not the "Optus" one. This might explain why I was puzzled that some of the information you gave earlier was at variance with what I was expecting - I was reading the manual for the "regular" modem, not the Optus variant.
???
What "links" ??
You need to download and read the usermanual for the Optus variant of the speedstream, as it is quite different. It is on the link I gave you in post #5, I know it is still working as I have just checked it. It is a 2.3MB PDF file.
Remember, linux does not need any "drivers". It already has all that is required to manage an ethernet cable based internet connection.
Your "Optus" version resides at 10.1.1.1 so if you want to go to its setup pages then put http://10.1.1.1 into your browser.

Edit:
Firewalls - No
Your ISP - No (why should they bother?)
/Edit:

Looking through the 10.1.1.1 site, the first thing I notice is that it is running PPPoE 8/35. This page also shows my e-mail address. In the "Host Configuration" page it goes thus: I.P Address: 10.1.1.1 IP Netmask 255.255.255.0 then the "Default Gateway" box is empty & next to it is a ticked box that says "Or Use WAN". The DHCP page is marked thus: CLIENT IP ADDRESS: 10.1.1.3 IP NETMASK: 255.255.255.0 DEFAULT GATEWAY:10.1.1.1
DNS SERVER: Blank, with a ticked box next to it that says "or Self". Secondary Dns Server: (optional) blank. DOMAIN NAME: Domain.invalid. LEASE TIME: 1 minute, with an unticked box next to it which allows for infinite time. m That's it; it seems to be set up to run PPPoE and WAN.
The Dynamic DNS settings are ticked "Disable". There is also a tool to reboot my gateway but I can not alter any of the settings I have outlined because the page that allows access has a username "admin" and a password they (Optus)supply, and they only support Internet Explorer. Somewhere in all this I noticed that address (?) beginning with 58. etc.

Don't know if we can ever get it to run for Linux and am starting to feel I might have to start looking for another modem. Regards.

May have to look at another brand of router/modem, as Seimens do not market these direct here.

Have contacted Seimens. Will see what they have to offer on the subect. Have printed out both versions of the book; lot's of reading! If any luck, will keep you posted; I am sure that to the more initiated it is simple. It seems to be a good unit.

I am sure you can get this modem to work with linux (other people have - did you check the links I posted earlier?). But at the moment, something is not configured correctly in your modem.
So yes: RTFM and experiment. Basically what you want is for the modem to negociate the connection with your ISP. Your modem will receive a WAN address from your ISP (by asking their dhcp server for a WAN address), and the numbers of their DNS servers. Then your modem needs to have its dhcp server running to allocate your LAN an IP address that lies within one of the private LAN address ranges allocated for this use (see my previous posts in this thread). Your PC then asks your modem for an IP address by dhcp, and this will be a local LAN address. DNS requests should go to the modem (I think it is at 10.1.1.1 - the "Gateway". Then you are up and running.

My general impression of modems supplied by ISPs is that they are rubbish. They get cheap (useless) stuff and re-badge it. Yes it works with windows, but it is not working to a standard. I started with a USB modem provided by BT, my ISP. I eventually got it working. Took me a week of google and trying things out. But it was a PITA every time I upgraded or switched distros. So I got a Zoom X4 (Ethernet & easy), then installed a Zoom X5 at another linux site (Ethernet & easy), now I am using a Netgear DG834 (also Ethernet / wireless & easy). With these hardwares, if they are turned on and connected at boot time, every distro for the past three years has recognised and connected to them at install time: If linux can find a dhcp server (that'll be your modem's) at the end of your ethernet cable, it'll connect faultlessly. You need to set up your modem so it firstly connects to your ISP (this is a one-time setup) and then offers your LAN a dhcp server so your LAN can connect to it. That's all there is to it.

I have just "upgraded" from 1 to 8Mb/sec with my ISP, and they are going to send me a new "free modem" - but I will not be using it as my Netgear DSL modem will not need any further messing with: It will connect, and allow my LAN to use the connection.

You will have to experiment, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

Seimens help no longer exists; my message "bounced". Looking at printouts of stuff you have sent, I went back into vi /cat etc etc and got the following:
E325: ATTENTION
Found a swap file by the name "/etc/network/.interfaces.swp"
owned by: root dated: Wed Oct 3 03:15:06 2007
file name: /etc/network/interfaces
modified: YES
user name: root host name: laurence-desktop
process ID: 6465
While opening file "/etc/network/interfaces"
dated: Sat Sep 29 17:38:22 2007

(1) Another program may be editing the same file.
If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two
different instances of the same file when making changes.
Quit, or continue with caution.

(2) An edit session for this file crashed.
If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r /etc/network/interfaces"
to recover the changes (see ":help recovery").
If you did this already, delete the swap file "/etc/network/.interfaces.swp"
to avoid this message.
"/etc/network/interfaces" 20 lines, 167 characters
Press ENTER or type command to continue

Needless to say, I got out fast, using the methods you gave me. Pretty frustrating, but I can see there is a real problem.