Hi all,

As you might have guessed, I am a Linux newbie. I've encountered a problem on my computer where I am unable to access the internet. I am currently running Slackware 10.1 on a dualboot with Windows 98 as the other OS using LILO. The system is connected to a home network where other PCs running Windows OSes are also connected. The thing is when I boot up in Windows 98 on the same machine, it connects fine to the internet, however, when I boot up in Slackware in the KDE desktop, I can't view any web sites on Konquerer or Mozilla. I ran netconfig and entered a random name "blue-machine" as my hostname, I used the Telus(my ISP) Connection-specific DNS Suffix as my Domain and chose the DHCP option and left DHCP Host Name as blank. I used startx to boot up my desktop and I couldn't get on-line. I then attempted to manually configure the settings through netconfig with "Static IP" using the same names for the first two options, then 192.168.123.103 as the IP address for the local machine which is what it is listed as IP Address when I boot up in Windows 98. I used 255.255.255.0 as the mask and 192.168.123.254 as the gateway address as listed in Windows 98. When it asked about the Name Server, I tried ab.hsia.telus.net as well as leaving it blank. Neither worked. The thing is I had it working before but I had to reinstall Slackware when I forgot my root password. It was the same setup but I don't remember what I used in my original configuration. I know I am definitely editting the same Ethernet card in Slackware as I am using in Windows 98 because the MAC addresses are the same.

When I type in ipconfig /all on one of my other machines, I get:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : green-machine
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : ab.hsia.telus.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : ab.hsia.telus.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com Gigabit LOM (3C940)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : July 19, 2006 8:15:26 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : July 26, 2006 8:15:26 PM

Typing in ifconfig on my Slackbox, I get:

eth0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Meric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
colissions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes: 0 (0.0 Kb) TX bytes 4720 (4.6 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

There's another device "lo" but I doubt it's relevent so I won't go through typing it up. Please if anyone has any information that could help me solve this dilemma, let me know. Thanks in advance!

Chris

You might want to look at the security setup on your Slackware, things like firewalls, etc. By default, the typical linux is installed with security like that on and all net functions blocked.

Hi there,

Nope, no firewalls are activated.

I used the Static IP option and eth0 now looks like this (note, I've also changed the IP address from 192.168.123.103 to 192.168.123.106:

eth0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
inet addr:192.168.123.106 BCAST:192.168.123.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
colissions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes: 0 (0.0 Kb) TX bytes 4720 (4.6 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

When I type in netstat -rn, I get this:
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
192.168.123.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 192.168.123.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

When I type in mii-tool eth0, I get:
eth0 negotiated 10baseT-FD, link ok

When I type in ethtool eth0, I get:
Settings for eth0:
No data available.

Erhh ...

Run netconfig again.
Make sure you look up the name-servers IP address. Without a name server,
how would slack resolve the name-servers name? ;}

Also, which is your default gateway/router?


Cheers,
Tink

Hi Tink,

How do I look up the name-servers IP address? Do I use my ISP's or "192.168.123.254" listed under DNS Servers on all my other machines' ipconfig /all?

I set 192.168.123.254 as my default gateway/router because that's the IP my router is set as.

Thanks.

Ok, seems all a bit weird.....

Can you ping your router?
Can you ping other machines on your LAN?
Can you get online if you use the IP address instead of the domain name?

I noticed with both extracts from 'ifconfig eth0' that you've posted you have 8 TX errors.

Is there anything in /var/log/messages?
Any useful output from ethereal perhaps that might tell you where it's going wrong?

Isn't 192.168.123.254 a DHCP server? Your Win ipconfig results say so. It seems to be assigning the IP addresses to the rest of the LAN w/o problem. Why aren't using it for the Slackbox?

Hi, no I can't ping my router, says it's unreachable, same with other machines on my LAN. I don't know what you mean about getting online using the IP address instead of the domain name.

I did set it as my DHCP server but it isn't doing anything.

Ok, I just noticed that my Slackbox connects to the internet and does the DHCP just fine if I connect it directly to my ADSL modem but not if I connect it through my router?

Any chance the router is/was also doing DHCP?

Normally, you should have only 1 DHCP server running at a time.