Shameless noob question coming up:

Trying to get MDK10 PC hooked up to NTL cable (UK).

1. Connect cable to network card (Netgear basic 10/100) - good start
2. Switch on PC and boot into Mandrake (KDE 3.2)
3. Run 'Configure Your Computer'
4. Got to 'Networking' panel
5. Select new connection
6. Choose either LAN or Cable (it seems to make no difference) and then the automatic setting (manual manke no difference)
7. Enter my gateway IP (i.e. NTL gateway)
8. Go to check connection in 'Monitor Connection' and although I appear to have a downstream connection I am completely unable to actually connect to the internet (i.e. pressing 'Connect to internet' in the monitor connections window or use a browser - just get 'no connection' or 'unable to connect')
9. Beginning to go 'thin on top' through pulling my hair out.

I have tried this with both networks cards (internal and PCI) and get the same result.

I know the machine *can* connect, but only when the cable passes through a hardware router first (which is not what I want).

Please, please, please can someone tell me the 1 stupid thing that I am doing (or not doing) that will fix this. I have not had this sort of problem in any of my previous exploits in networking on 'other' OS's, which makes this little episode all the more frustrating.

I am sure I have left out some pertinent information...happy to fill in the blanks if someone can help.

Yap

System specs:

Athlon 2000XP
ECSC Elite MoBo
512 DDR 2100
80GB IDE HDD
Internal (VIA) LAN connection
Netgear LAN card
WinTV TV Card
Radeon 9600 Pro

Open a console, su to root and paste back the output of:

# ifconfig

That should list all your network interfaces and their status.

Yap

Not sure about NTL but with Telewest you have to have the MAC address of your NIC registered with them before you can connect

Sounds like the MAC address of your router is registered but not the one for your PC

Pete

Thanks for replying - I have been at work all day and have not been able to get back in front of the troublesome machine.

Pete M: You are right - NTL has a sort of registration screen for each of the computers (MAC addresses) that you try and connect the the 'net. Unfortunately I cannot even get this far...yet

kilgoretrout: I will try that - however as the machine in question does not connect the network or the internet, I may struggle to actually post the output of the command. What should I be looking for?

Thanks for the replies, again.

Yap

Yap

Well I think the best way to approach this is connect to the net via your hardware router run the command as kilgoretrout suggests to get the MAC address of your nic, go to NTL website register your MAC address then hopefully everything should work

As an alternative, I'm assuming the MAC address is the problem, access the routers admin page find the MAC it's using then use this to spoof it on your Linux box
Spoof

Pete

I have my NTL modem going through a router - no identification necessary, it's all done via DHCP.

BTW - are you using the usb connection or the ethernet connection?

Pete M: I'll give the MAC spoofing a go as it neatly rules out a few possibilites at once. Not *completely* convinced the problem is there tho as when I have connected the other PCs in the house directly the cable NTL's 'friendly' screen appears straight away. Will report back...

XavierP: Ethernet connection, and yes the connection works fine when it goes through the router first. Sadly that was not what I was after :S

Odd. It should work the same when connected directly to the modem - once you've registered your pc once, it shouldn't need doing again. We haven't installed the NTL software for over a year now and have changed and rebuilt pcs many times.

What does "ifconfig" show? Can you post it here?