[Cambo105]

Hi everyone, I am very new to Linux and in the interest of just trying it out, I've downloaded the latest version of Knoppix. It runs excellent on my computer (HP dv2000, Core 2 Duo) and with 2 gigs of ram, I can run it directly from the ram to make it even faster. My only problem is I am having a lot of trouble connecting to the internet. I don't know how to connect to the broadband internet at my college and I don't even know where to start. Also any tips on connecting to wireless internet would be appreciated because once I can get my wired connection all set I'd like to be able to connect to wireless as well. Thank you in advance for your help.

[lotuseclat79]

There is an O'Reilly book on Knoppix that might be of great help. entitled "Knoppix Hacks" - comes with a difficult to get out of the wrapper, i.e. easily damaged - CD.

$29.95 so, suggest you search for a cheaper price on Internet if you purchase it.

-- Tom

[Cambo105]

Ya, I was aware of that particular book, I was hoping to get some help on here though.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi Cambo105,

To configure broadband to your college network, you will need to get some details from either your college network admin and/or your fellow students that already have it figured out.

That said, once you get the details, you can configure Knoppix as follows:
Click on K Menu>KNOPPIX>Network/Internet and from there maybe Network card.

If your college assigned a username and password to use when you connect to your broadband Internet connection, then you must set up PPPoE before you can connect to the Internet. Click K Menu>KNOPPIX>Network/Internet>ADSL/PPPOE configuration. It will attempt to detect PPPoE use on your network, and then enter you username and password to connect to your college Intranet (i.e. your ISP).

Once you finish the configuration application, you will be connected to the Internet.

Wireless is another matter - start another thread on that when you are able to solve this problem first.

Apparently, the book "Knoppix Hacks" cannot be searched at Amazon for the relevant chapter, but will be available in a new edition Nov 15, 2007 for $23.09 which you can preorder now, or the previous edition is available for $19.77 which also has some details on what you need to know.

-- Tom

[Cambo105]

I am relatively young (19) and rather new to Linux and my technical knowledge of computers is lacking, so please excuse my ignorance. When I run netcardconfig I am asked for 5 numbers. First, the IP address: which address is this? The one for my school's network or my computer? If its for mine, how do I find it? Then the network mask, broadcast address, default gateway, and nameserver. Basically the same questions apply for all. What are these numbers and where/how do I find them?

Thank you for help in advance, hopefully I'll have knoppix online soon.

[lotuseclat79]

The IPaddr is for your computer. Run the command: $ ifconfig
and look for inet addr: n.n.n.n format where n is a number from 1-3 digits.

The network mask is found the same way, look for Mask: n.n.n.n format ditto.

Broadcast addr: look for Bcast: n.n.n.n format ditto.

The default gateway is the ip addr of your college network's gateway computer.

The nameserver is the DNS name service computer, usually 1-2 computer ip addresses are specified, one primary and one backup. These may be those that your college uses and you won't see them output from ifconfig command.

Most likely the values you seek will be located with the etho section of the output.

Do not use 127.0.0.1 as your IP addr - it refers to your local computer, but is not recognizable on the Internet as an IP addr which specifies your computer.

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

If you can login to your college's IntraNetwork (not Internet), then you should be able to issue the command:
$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
to find out the IP addresses of the nameservers employed by your college.

-- Tom

[Cambo105]

I run netcardconfig, and this is my results. Insight into what this means would be very helpful.

knoppix@Knoppix:~$ netcardconfig
ifconfig eth1 128.119.26.247 netmask 255.255.254.0 broadcast 128.119.27.255 up
route add default gw 128.119.26.1
SIOCADDRT: File exists
auto lo eth1
Setting Nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf to 128.119.100.83
Adding Nameserver to /etc/resolv.conf: 128.119.100.19
Done.

[lotuseclat79]

Looks like you have configured your ethernet card, and set the DNS servers for your college (UMA).

So, have you tried to use your browser to reach any websites within your college domain - i.e. Intranetwork for the college? And if so, then tried to connect to any websites like www.google.com or www.yahoo.com outside your college domain?

-- Tom

[Cambo105]

Yes, but when I open konqueror, I can't access anything, for web pages that is.

[lotuseclat79]

Every time you reboot your computer using the Knoppix Live CD, you will need to revisit the steps from post #4 in this thread, and then you should be able to establish a connection to the Internet. The notion is that you may find that ifconfig may report a different IP address because your college assigns a new one on every login to it network using DHCP protocol. This is a dynamic IP address assignment as opposed to a static IP address.

If you are not doing this (you should be), i.e. I am assuming you power down your computer overnight, and also you should really try to find someone experienced with computers in your dorm to help you sort this out if these steps have not worked.

It may be that you have not yet properly setup the DNS server names in the /etc/resolv.conf file or some other reason that you cannot access the Internet.

Try the following command in a Terminal command line window:
$ ping www.goole.com
or
$ ping www.yahoo.com

What do you get?

-- Tom