Baslinux mailing list

["Nomdo Jansonius" <nomdo AT dds.nl>]

Clearly, I have to give more details.

I have an e-tech ADSL modem with built-in router. One side connected to 
the incoming telephone line (splitter), other side has four ethernet 
entrances. From the point of view of my computer, the modem acts like a 
server. 

First, I configured the ADSL modem for my ISP (www.dds.nl), using a 
borrowed laptop running internet explorer. 

Next, I connected DOS to ADSL. This is really quite simple: 

  1. Download the correct driver for the network card from 
     http://www.crynwr.com/drivers
  2. Install the driver, e.g. for a driver called foo.com:
       foo 0x60
  3. Configure Arachne by choosing: manual TCP/IP setup => resident 
     packet driver => configure via BOOTP

That's all! Did you ever download 1 Mb within 10 s? Every time arachne 
performs BOOTP, the modem provides an IP-address to my computer 
(10.0.0.*, where * is an apparently random integer). 

Now time for Linux. The BasLinux FAQ provides some information for 
connecting to a network, in three steps. 

Step 1: I found the correct module for my network card at the Slackware 
        7.1 site and installed it in BL2. 

Step 2: I gave a fake IP-address to my computer: ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.3.

To a certain extent, this works, as it is now possible to reach the 
configuration menu of the ADSL modem by running netscape in BL2 and going 
to http://10.0.0.2, as stated in the manual of the modem. However, the 
internet cannot be reached. 

The problem is that the BL FAQ assumes a fixed IP-address whereas an ADSL 
modem delivers a dynamically assigned address. My original question, can 
ADSL be used to connect BL to the web, is now reduced to the question: 
how can we teach BL to accept an IP-address (and DNS etc.) from the ADSL 
modem? In other words: can BL connect to a BOOTP/DHCP server? 

All the best, Nomdo