I am very new to linux. So, I have installed Mandrake 9.2 on an old PC (a 200Mhz Pentium with 96K memory) and although it runs slow it is workable. The PC is directly connected to a Westell DSL modem/router and after installation and without doing anything I was connected to the internet. I then setup my email and after some trial and error it was working as well. I then attempted to setup the PC to share files on another computer connected to the same DSL modem router. That is when I lost my internet connection. I went to computer configuration>configure your computer>mandrake control center>network and internet>drakconnect. It shows that the status is not connected even though the ethernet card state is up. I have tried the wizard without any success. Can anyone help?

Are you sure you have the modem / router setup correctly?
The problem you have sounds more like a router issue than a Linux issue. Have you RTFM of your router? Does your router have it's own built in HTTP server so you can connect to it to change it's setup?
How is your PC & the one you are trying to share files with connected to each other? Do they both connect there ethernet cards to the DSL modem / router? (This is what I think you mean) Or does one PC connect one ethernet card to the modem / router & another ethernet card to a hub / switch which the other PC also connects to?
What brand of modem / router have you got?

As for Linux stuff:
What did you do to "set up the PC to share files on another computer"? Is iptables running? Post output of:

iptables -L; iptables -t NAT -L

What protocol are you using to share the files? NFS, SFTP, Samba, etc.

Suggestions:
Try unplugging all but the first PC you connected with, (the one that worked) & try to connect again without changing any settings.
With all PC's connected to the router, try undoing what you did to share your files & then try to reconnect.

Advice:
I have several PC's at home all connected to a hub, with one PC as a dedicated gateway to serve the internet connection to the others. The gateway has 2 ethernet cards, one that connects to the cable modem & the other to a hub. All the other PC's access the net thru the gateway PC. This way, I can use iptables to control the traffic thru my modem. Iptables can be a bit hard to learn at the start, but it can do much more, in a much more logical fashion than the modem / routers can. We use such a router at my work, which I am responsible for. It is, in comparison, easier to learn how to setup, but I just don't have the control as I do thru iptables, nor does it use the same logic or naming conventions as iptables. The reason I am telling you this is that, in my opinion, the modem / router setup that you are using is really for those that only use windose & don't have the power of Linux & iptables to control exactly how there connection behaves. If I were you, I'd have only one PC connected to your modem & use iptables to do the rest. There are a few good GUI frontends if thats what you like, personally I like kmyfirewall the best.

Anyway, post the answers to my questions & what happened when you try the suggestions & I might be able to help you further.

fuzzyash,

Thank you for your response. Sorry I have taken so long to reply. I was on vacation in Denver, Colorado. What a magnificent place.

Both PC connect their ethernet cards directly to the modem/router. The modem/router is a Westell VersaLink Model 327W.

iptables must not be running. When I issue the command you suggested I get the following response: "bash: iptables: command not found".

I disconnected the PC with Linux from the router. Then reconnected. No connection. When I go into Drakconnect it shows that the interface is eth0, the protocol is dhcp, the driver is natsemi and the status is up. However, it also shows that the status of the connection is "not connected". So it appears that the ethernet card is recognized and yet the connection cannot be established. I would guess that it is because of some setting the needs to be reset. I do not know how to reset anything.

I went into DralGw and disabled file sharing, disconnected the modem/router for 1 minute, reconnected and still no internet connection. All the lights on the modem/router are green and solid.

Finally, I went to configuration>drakconnect>internet connections>Lauch the Wizard. All the settings appeared to be automatic except for HTTP proxy and FTP proxy, which I left blank since I did not know what values to provide. In addition, the gateway shown was blank. Do you know if I should have put values in any of these 3 blanks? If so, do you know what they should be?

I am now at a complete loss. Do you have any more suggestions?

Most modem/routers have a small built-in http server so you can access it to configure it & according to yours docs it does. Try pinging it & post results, usually:
Then execute:
& post results.

It sounds like when you first plugged your first PC into the router it configured itself to act only as a modem, allowing your ISP to assign you IP number & DNS numbers thru DHCP. Then when you connected another PC the router it reconfigured itself to act as a router which means you will have to setup Linux & the router yourself. But before I can help you further I need to know a few things.
Open your internet browser &, according to your routers docs, type into the address bar either: http://192.168.0.1 or: http://dslrouter
You should see a config screen. Also, on the CD that came with your router there should be a pdf file that is the manual for it. A good place to start would be to read the installation section & do what it says to the letter! (RTFM) You can also download it from http://www.westell.com/content/sales/327W.pdf
Let me know how this goes.

results for ping:
ping 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data
from 192.168.1.1 icmp_seq-1 Destination host unreachable
ping: snedmsg: operation not permitted

then the message repeats with the only seq-1 changing to seq-2, seq-2, ... seq-90. At that point I stopped the messages.

results for ifconfig:
ifconfig: command not found.

I have the Linux system on a PC that is dual-booted with Windows 2000. When I ping in windows 2000 all is well and I receive the following.

results for ping:
Reply from 192.168.1.1, bytes=32, time<10ms, TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1, bytes=32, time<10ms, TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1, bytes=32, time<10ms, TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1, bytes=32, time<10ms, TTL=64

Results from ipconfig:
connection-specific DNS suffix:myhome.westell.com
IP address: 192.168.1.45
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.1.1

So, it appears to me that the problem is not with the router but with the Linus internet setup. Any suggestions?

I've never used Mandrake before so I don't know how to set it up. But it sounds like you know where to change your network settings. You need to turn off DHCP & setup your connection manually. Just make the settings the same as in win 2000. IP address: 192.168.1.45 --> subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 --> default gateway: 192.168.1.1
All settings are important. You will also need your DNS numbers, you should be able to get these from your ISP's site. Unless you go thru a proxy then you should leave all of those setting blank, & I very much doubt you go thru a proxy. I didn't notice in your last post that you said your gateway address was blank, this needs to be set to the address of your router --> 192.168.1.1

If this doesn't work then we will need to get a bit more technical, but as long as your Ethernet card is working, & it looks like it is, then this should work.

Let me know how you go!

I give up. I have spent countless hours trying to get linux connected to the internet. I started this to learn linux and ended up wasting most of my time.

Join the party! I went through the same agony with Mandrake and Suse. I gave up on those as a lost cause, unless you speak fluent geek. A friend suggested I try Knoppix, and that was much better. I've got that configured to operate as a fileserver for the Windows network, and it was relatively easy.