I am a complete n00b to linux. I always wanted to learn linux and start using it and now I am.

I installed Slackware linux about a week ago and I can get online with it. I'm using broadband, so I'm not dialing up to anywhere. I tried configuring it with #netconfig but I couldn't get anywhere. I'm actually running through a router, it's a cable connection too. I set it up on Static IP and I think I put in the right IPs for everything, I'm not sure and nothing worked. I also tryed DHCP, cause I'm running through a router, but still nothing. I have no idea what to do.

The computers IP is 68.80.39.180
Through the router its 192.168.0.103

I don't have a damn clue what to do so that I can browse sites on linux. So it will make it easier to learn, instead of loading windoze, browsing for info, rebooting to linux trying stuff that doesn't work then booting back up to windoze to read more. Can anyone help me out?

Yeah I meant CAN'T get online with it... sorry

are you trying to set it up using dhcp or static addresses?

Um.. does it matter? I'm not sure what to use, does that router effect anything, what should I use?

If you don't mind, do this:

Become root (type "su -")
type "ifconfig -a" and post the output here.

Configuration wise, you might want to tell the router to assign you a static IP, if you can. I think there's a way to do that in, for instance, the little linksys cable/dsl routers.

To configure a static IP:

ifconfig interface ip-address broadcast broadcast-address netmask netmask-address
route add -net default gw gateway netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1 interface

That looks complicated, but you probably already know what most of it means. Both of these commands are in /sbin, so if they don't run, put an /sbin in front of them. In your terms, this would be:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.103 broadcast 192.168.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add -net default gw 192.168.1.101 netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1 eth0

This is assuming the IP address assigned to the computer from the router is 192.168.1.103 and that the router's IP is 192.168.1.101 (on the "behind the firewall" side).

eth0 is your network card, broadcast is the last address in the block of IP's your computer is in, netmask is the number of computers in the block. In this case, the netmask is telling it that everything in 192.168.1.* is somewhere close. That's what the 255.255.255.0 means. If it was, for example, 255.255.0.0, it would mean everything in 192.168.* is close at hand, and if you see a netmask of 255.255.255.255 it means basically "i know who I am, but I don't know where or who anyone else is".

Anyway, that should get you up and cooking with some network usage.



As a total aside, what made you decide on slackware? It's fairly hardcore, if you wanna save yourself some headache, pick up redhat 9 - it'll do all this for you, you just tell it that it's dhcp in the install process and it does the rest.
Or, if you want to be hardcore, check out gentoo. More extensive documentation than slack, and it's got better network autodetection.

But, your mileage may vary, distribution choice is very personal.

Thank you very much, I seem to understand it somewhat. I haven't tried it yet but I will soon. I chose slackware because it was like 10$ online and I had dial up at the time and didn't feel like downloading a 600MB file... I'll tell you the outcome of this. Thank you again.

WOW! Thank you so much man. It worked. Just had to mess with the IP's. I am posting this from Linux. Thanks alot!

excellent, good to hear.


If you could, post exactly what you did, so that people that search after us can see and learn....

Glad you got it working.