I can't connect my Mandrake 9.2 machine to the internet through my DSL modem and router. I have a Windows 98 machine with a verizon modem and a Linksys router. I have the Mandrake box hard connected from the router to the card. I get an error message when I type in an address or click on a bookmark. I've attempted to configure my ethernet card in KDE to no avail.

Can you ping? Open a terminal and type ping 127.0.0.1 Any replies? While in the terminal type su and then your root password. Then type ifconfig What's the output?

I get : " 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1 icmp_seq=138 ttl=64 time=0.092 " and it keeps giving me this on new lines with the numbers incrementing.

For ifconfig under root I get :
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet Hiaddr 00:20:35:81:A1:4A
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MILTICAST MTU:1500 Metri:1
RX packets:60 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX [ackets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruss:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:9226 (9.0 Kb) TX bytes: 0 (0.0 b)
Interupt:11ase address:0xdf80

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1254 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
TX packets:1254 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns;0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:104042 (101.6 Kb) TX bytes:104042 (101.6 Kb)

Might have been a typo in your request. Try ifconfig, with an f in there. That's definitely the best thing we could have right now is the ifconfig output.

It's ifconfig and looks like your nic is not setup. Take a look in /var/log/messages and see if the nic is detected. There should be a line that starts with eth0

edit: looks like the nic is setup but missing the dns address. Check with windows to see what it is. ipconfig /all

At the prompt I type ipconfig/all and get " no such file or directory "
I get permission denied when I try /var/log/messages , even as root

To confirm it is just DNS try ping 216.40.32.30 any replies?

In windows 98 either from start>run winipcfg or from a command prompt type ipconfig /all Then look for the DNS ip

in Mandrake open a terminal and su to root and type netconfig and fill in the blanks. If you still can't connect then it might be dhcp thats not setup.

pinging gets: " Network is unreachable "
This is stricly a Mandrake box - no Windows 98 - that's my other box with which I want to share the connection
netconfig doesn't work - I get " command not found "

Your NIC is not being assigned an IP address.

Use the Mandrake Control network wizard to configure a static ip address for your local network. linksys uses 192.168.1.xxx as the default local network. Set the gateway for the router's local IP address (default = 192.168.1.1).

You should be able to ping the router's local IP address if successfull.

Is the win98 connected to the internet? I just assumed it was. If it is you can get the dns info from win98. But looking at your ifconfig it kinda looks like dhcp isn't picking up an ip from your router. Does dhcp try to connect when you're booting?

You need to run netconfig as root. Open a terminal and type su then the root password then netconfig

Yes, I su'ed to root and typed netconfig, and got "bash: netconfig: command not found"

I'm not familiar with Mandrake. Maybe it doesn't have netconfig. Try Michaelks suggestion and use the control centre for Mandrake. Since your using a router you probably don't need dhcp so maybe assign a static ip to Mandrake.

I'm getting the same thing from ifconfig in Mandrake 9.1 and 9.2. So I'm pretty sure he's typing the command right.

A little extra info tho: it looks like at boot eth0 is getting a 169.x.x.x IP address, which is invalid. I know the NIC and the cable work cause I reimaged into Windows and it picked up an IP address without any problems.

Whatshisface - press ESC when the system is booting up and watch what it does when it's 'Bringing up eth0'. If it says anything about a 169.x.x.x IP address, we're having the same problem.

I'm gonna look for an updated NIC driver for mine and let you know later today what happens.

Yes.. When I esc, I get an error message " mask not found " and "some other host already uses address 192.168.0.101"

I'm back online! I went back to Mandrake configuration wizard and played with the settings. After launching the wizard, I unchecked Auto detection -> next, then for connection type I checked Lan AND cable (not adsl - what's the a for anyway?) -> next, then pretty much accepted all the default settings. Now onto file sharing and SAMBA! Thanks everyone for your help.