Impossible to connect?

jdknshld · 06-25-2006, 12:50 AM

Hello all.

I have been wrestling recently with my first Linux distribution, Fedora Core, for the past several weeks. Try as I might, I am unable to get it to connect to the internet. ifconfig's results will be posted at the end of this post, as I have seen they are needed in my reading of other posts.

Having installed FC, I noticed (during installation and initial booting) that errors had followed anything network related. Once I had logged in and opened a browser window, my suspicions were confirmed: My internet was not functional currently in this OS. I have tried many ways to change certain values so that it would work, but to no avail. However, I believe some other specs may be in order before I relate anything further here.

I am running a dual-boot, partitioned box with 2 OSs(as I share a computer, I was compelled to keep my old copy of Windows XP home edition, a fact that has seemed to have turned to my favor, as that is the only OS on my computer that can access the internet at the moment). I boot to FC from a floppy, through GRUB. My ISP is Comcast. I connect through a USB-connected Dell Truemobile 1184 Wireless Broadband Router, model WX-6215D. My modem is a Motorola Surfboard SB4200 Cable Modem.

Now, through my research on the internet as of late, there appear to be no Linux-specific Drivers for my modem. All guides provided by motorola on both Website and CD are Windows specific, except for a single reference for Unix users to open a file on the disk that doesn't exsist. Aside from that, my friend-who-runs-my-distro uses a direct ethernet connection, no router, and has a different modem than I do.

Apart from being completely Green in the ways of Linux, I seem to be faced with an impasse. My questions are as follows:

1. Is there a way to get this router/modem combination working?

2. Would it be possible for me to convert or 'wrap' the USB drivers from Windows to Linux?

3. Using this wireless router, I get two different IP addresses when I attempt to look mine up: One with the Ocelot 192 at the beginning, and one with 68. Which (if either) should be in ifconfig?

Code:

IFCONFIG OUTPUT (*note* I have changed the final two ocelots in the ip address below, for personal security purposes. I do not believe that this will prevent you from aiding me, but if it would, please state so and why. */note*)
  
 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:07:E9:BD:6C:68     
 inet addr:68.35.121.296 Bcast:68.35.121.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
 inet6 addr: fe80::207:e9ff:febd:6c68/64 Scope:Link
 UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
 RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:1512 (1.4 KiB)
 
 lo Link encap:Local Loopback
 inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
 RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0                                                     
 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
 RX bytes:826 (826.0 b) TX bytes:826 (826.0 b)

MS3FGX · 06-25-2006, 03:07 AM

Technically, ndiswrapper can load drivers from Windows in Linux. It is built for WLAN cards, but has been known to work on other USB devices.

But it seems like the easiest thing to do would be to simply get a router with Ethernet (I was not aware they even made a USB-based router), or a WLAN card for the machine to connect to the router wirelessly.