Ethernet Questions

[sadunn <sadunn@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>]

(I initially posted this to comp.os.linux.help, but none of the advice I 
received was that helpful. Regardles, I am going to post the replies I 
received, as well as my replies to them after this message)

Hello. I am new to Linux, although I purchased Mandrake 7.0 quite a
while ago. I recently began to desire to know how to operate Linux
because I began to legitimately want to know about computers, as
opposed to being a beginning programmer that liked to play around a
little on them. However, I am unable to connect to the Internet on my
terminal. I used to Lothar utility to detect my ethernet card, and I
inputed all the values(Adapter Address, IP, Subnet mask, and Default
Gateway) into the Network configuration available through DrakConfig.
I got this data from the Winipcfg program in Win98. These were not
enough. I went to the Linux ethernet HOW-TO, but none of the
information  there was on software setup, but it directed me to the
networking HOW-TO. That, as well, failed to provide me with the
information that I needed. So then I went to my university Information
Technology Services(ITS) office, but they told me that they couldn't
give me any technical support on Linux directly(they appear to have
some sort of deal with Gateway, Macintosh, and Windows, but not
Linux-oriented companies), but they did have a small webpage they
directed me to. I went there, and it was a meager collection of links.
Through these links I found this newsgroup. Please, I really want to
get my ethernet running as soon as possible so I can update my kernel
and OS and begin to learn how Linux really works. Whatever other
information you need I will try my very best to provide. Thanks!

Response one(by "John"):

You also need your DNS servers' IP addresses, I didn't see that you 
mentioned this. Without them you can access remote servers only by 
number, not name. Without DNS, you cannot resolve anything and any 
attempts to connect to a web site will fail (unless you use the IP 
address, which is unlikely)

Can you ping "localhost" or "127.0.0.1"? How about your "real" IP? For 
example (at a command prompt):

ping localhost
ping 127.0.0.1
ping 12.34.56.78   <--- your real IP here

Response by "Alex" to response one:

Try to see if your ISP (or wherever you get your Net feed from) uses
DHCP. This means Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and if properly
set up will automatically assign you your own IP adress and DNS server
addresses. The software that does this undex Linux is either dhcpcd or
pump (I think there are perhaps others I have seen). If you use this,
you do not need to manually configure your internet connection.

My two responses(One to each person that tried to help me):

My net feed does use dynamic IP's. In my settings, I can select DHCP,
which was unknown to me before this message. So, after reading this, I
selected it. I'm not sure if it helped. It didn't do anything with my
DNS that I can see, and my error message when I try to access a
webpage still says that it is unable to resolve a name server.

I can ping localhost and 127.0.0.1, but my "real" IP returned a -1
result. I am almost certain now, after some searching around, that it
is my DNS that is to blame. The error message I get when I try to
access a webpage tells me that it cannot resolve the name server,
which seems to be in line with the DNS advice you gave me. I think
that my IP is dynamic, not static, so I'm unable to ping the same one
twice. Also, reading through some more help documentation, I've
discovered that there is supposed to be a quick network setup wizard,
but it isn't there.

If anyone on this list can help me, I'd be very happy, indeed. Thanks!


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