2 weeks now and no help to connect to the internet.
 

I am very new to linux, in fact 2 weeks ago I installed Xandros linux on my other laptop (this is my old barley working one) and I did so erasing windows in place of Xandros. Since that time i have not been able to connect to the internet. I really do not want to go back to windows, and would like to give Xandros a shot, but I just don't understand why I can connect to the internet with windows but not with Xandros. I have read many posts in the networking forum and have found it all quite confusing. I have run many of the commands I have seen others told to check and I generally get the same info more or less, however one command I ran is route -n and i notice others have some info but i have nothing there.........Is there any easy was to connect to the internet using Xandros or do I have no choice but to return to the #$##%$%% windows world? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME?

Well, one bit of information that would be nice, is what you are using to connect to the internet, brand/model/etc.

Yes. And some hardware specifications too.

Thanks
 

Newbie


Registered: Mar 2006
Posts: 4
Distribution: Thanks for responding.

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Well I have an AdSL smartAX MT800 modem made by Huawei and my iSP is
China Telecom......I have spoken to my ISP provider but it seems that
no one in China has even heard of Linux......You also asked me for the
ifconfig-a and when I click on the ifconfig program ib the sbin folder
I get the following;


eth0 Link encap; Ethernet HWaddr 00;11;D8;A8;12;9E
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU;1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen: 1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes: 684 (684.0 b)
Interrupt: 5 Base address: 0x4400

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: 390 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets: 390 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen: 0
RX bytes: 29985 (29.2 KiB) TX bytes: 29985 (29.2 KiB)

Press <ENTER> to continue...

Which distribution are you using?

First off, you dont have an IP address. Here is part of my ifconfig -a output:

Does your ISP give you a static or dynamic IP address? For dynamic, your computer needs to be set up for DHCP. Somewhere in your menus, there is a dialog for network settings (This depends on your distro). You need to set the interface to DHCP--or enter the IP if your connection is static. You also need to enter the address of the DNS servers (this is provided by your ISP)

Open a console and, as root, run "dhcpcd eth0" (minus the quotes) and let us know if this gives you an ip address.

If he's using a USB modem surely eth0 won't help as that would be his Network Card?

True :D But then he doesn't say he's using the usb port. Always go with the ethernet option, it's faster and easier to set up.

OK some research leads me to beleive that it's in fact an ADSL router and not a USB Modem.

http://www.huawei.ru/files/documentation/6/62/62.pdf So carry on seems you're on the right track :)

Ok thanks for the replies...but now what?
 

Ok I did this and got command not found. I am using Xandros free version
3.0.2 and my internet connection is dynamic hence only a user name and password
I assume. With windows I only use my user name and password to get online and I have Xandros set up as dynamic also...Keep the good advice coming...thanks

Firstly you need to check your modem/router manual to establish how you connect to the hardware. Normally the router side uses dhcp but check the instructions.
Xandros is Debian based so your network configuration is contained in /etc/network/interfaces. If the router side uses dhcp then edit the interfaces file, which should look like;

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This entry was created during the Debian installation
# (network, broadcast and gateway are optional)

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

If the router side uses a static address then it should look like;

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This entry was created during the Debian installation
# (network, broadcast and gateway are optional)

auto eth0
address <ip_address> e.g. 192.168..1.10
netmask 255.255.255.0 (for 192.168.1.1 but may be different based category)
gateway <ip_address of router>

In the above eth0 must be on the same subnet as the router. eg if the router uses 192.168.1.1 then it must be 192.168.1.X

Having edited the file you will need to restart networking so do /etc/init.d/networking restart (tip; type /e and then tab to auto-complete the line etc)

If correctly configured these routers have an http configuration page and you should be able to access the router via a browser.

Hey Tiger....tried it.
 

Tiger thanks for the help but I tried what you said and noticed 2 things
...1st I was missing the auto eth0 in the auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
so I added that and when I restarted i noticed that instead of reading no
interfaces connected it now says eth0 pending....I tried again to connect but
still no luck...I do have a dynamic connection because there was no ip address at all...also what I am curious about is why when I was running windows could I connect so easily but with linux I am having such a problem...
Thanks in advance for your help.

You need to check /var/log/dmesg for info relating to eth0. Make sure that the card is being seen and that the relevant drivers are loaded. This should have been done during the install.
The post above I have missed out a line in the static addressing;
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# This entry was created during the Debian installation
# (network, broadcast and gateway are optional)
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
The address of the card as above.

That's easy to answer - the manufacturer of the modem/router has written an install script that does all this work for you. Linux is a different ball game. w32 apps are written for a single platform. Linux has many versions and their deployment of networking is very slightly different making it difficult for anyone to make a generic installer for all 'nix based systems.