Baslinux mailing list

[Constant Brouerius van Nidek <constant AT indo.net.id>]

On Thursday 12 May 2005 20:06, James Miller wrote:
> On Thu, 12 May 2005, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
> > Since three days one of my computers is connected with the Internet via
> > an ADSL modem/ router.
>
> I'm not familiar with such a thing as a "modem /router." In the US, ADSL
> requires a particular type of modem, which is a separate piece of hardware
> that filters internet packets from your telephone line and sends them over
> ethernet to a computer or other ethernet-capable device. Another
> ethernet-capable device that often figures in right after the ADSL modem
> is a router (or switch). Perhaps you were saying that you have this sort
>
Neither am I familiar ;-). But it is one box, the size of a thick book that 
works as a router and comes with an integrated ADSL modem.
Your scenario describes best what is happening.

> > My BL2 box is connected to this router and should be able to start using
> > this connection too if I only would know what to change/do.
>
>
> > On my Suse box it was very easy. On the BL2 box I assume it is more work
> > but it should still be manageable.
> > Could somebody show me the way?
>
> Please describe more about how the Suse box got online. What, more
> precisely, does "it was very easy" mean? As a guess, I would say "it was
> very easy" could mean you just plugged an ethernet cable from the NIC on
> your Suse box to an ethernet port on the router, started up the Suse box,
> and it automagically got online. If this is the way it went, I would guess
> the following: your router runs a dhcp server and Suse, being a modern
> distro, auto-detected your NIC and sent out a dhcp request on it when you
> started the machine. Modern distros are usually set to issue dhcp requests
> on whatever NIC they find. 
More or less as above the install went. I had Suse informed about the 
Ethernet 
card I wanted to use.
Than three nice fellows from the telephone company came (they also have a ISP 
which I do not use) and they being Win***s men where first lost. After 
finding the web browser they put an URL in the web browser http://10.0.0.2/
doc/adv.htm and they got connected and informed about the details of the 
connection like IP address and Mac address. Don't ask me from where and how. 
The page just started up. The only thing I did before they came was emptying 
all dns numbers I had in my setup and then instructing the setup to use DHCP.
I assume the router runs the DHCP server.
I was using static addresses and was told that my router would give addresses 
to the connected Ethernet cards.

> BL2, on the other hand, requires some manual
> intervention (installing a dhcp client) and editing of a config file (so
> dhcp runs on the NIC at startup) to do this.
>
Dear James,
The problem starts with the fact that a modern distro has done everything 
more 
or less auto-magically and painless. If I have to do it by hand I am 
completely lost. You are right in the assumption that  I need  to get BL2 to 
issue a dhcp request. Hope it is possible ;-).