The "I wanna get my cable modem working" Howto Your cable modem works in Windoze, but not in Linux? Boot into Windows and open your email or web browser and make SURE it is working. ------------------------------------------------------- Win98/Win98se/Winnt/Win2k Users (Win95 see bottom) Start,run,command.com Command window opens, type into window ipconfig /all (If you do ipconfig /all > \settings.txt you can open/print the file made or open it in linux to get and keep your settings handy) And something like this will appear: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Windows 98 IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . : [EMAIL PROTECTED] DNS Servers . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.23 192.168.0.1 Node Type . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast NetBIOS Scope ID. . . . . . : IP Routing Enabled. . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . : No NetBIOS Resolution Uses DNS : Yes 0 Ethernet adapter : Description . . . . . . . . : PPP Adapter. Physical Address. . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-00-00 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . : DHCP Server . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255 Primary WINS Server . . . . : Secondary WINS Server . . . : Lease Obtained. . . . . . . : Lease Expires . . . . . . . : 1 Ethernet adapter : Description . . . . . . . . : Novell 2000 Adapter. Physical Address. . . . . . : 00-40-05-30-26-ED DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.224 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 Primary WINS Server . . . . : Secondary WINS Server . . . : Lease Obtained. . . . . . . : Lease Expires . . . . . . . : ------------------------------------------------------------- Take a look at your Adapter (In my case Novell 2000 Adapter). You are interested in IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DHCP Enabled (yes or no), DNS Servers (at the top). Okay, now open your browser and look for proxy info, if you find any copy it down. (Netscape is under edit, preferences,advanced,proxies, Manual proxy configuration (on mine)) (In Internet Exploder I will not even try to suggest where it might be, they change location like I change my sox) Open your email client now and look for name of mail server (Something like mail.home.net) Open a command window again and ping the name they give, write the name and number down! example: ping mail reply from 192.168.0.50 ping news reply from 192.168.0.51 If your mail server is named mail and not mail.something.somethingelse then your provider has an ALIAS on his DNS server and you either must use his DNS numbers or manually put in the ip number for "mail" yourself. I suggest you use his DNS numbers because they may change the numbers for the alias "mail" and then your mail will stop working. Reasons they might have to change number? Server crash, load balancing, just because they can... Same kinda thing goes for news. Remember, if this alias exists it is not a real address. If you go to another machine and try to get your mail you will have to put the numbers in manually. Ok, now that you have all this info boot up linux and put all those settings into linuxconf. If DHCP Enabled said yes then use it in linuxconf, probably not a good idea to static your address if under Windoze it was dynamic. After close of linuxconf you should be able to ping your mail and news servers by name. If not, try by number. If you can ping by number but not by name then go back into linuxconf and fix the DNS entries. If you can't by number either then ping your "Default Gateway", Still no joy? Do ifconfig and check numbers for card. Open up netscape and input proxy server settings if any. If you are going to use Netscape for mail and news you can set up the servers now. If you want you can edit /etc/hosts to make your own alias to mail and news. 192.168.0.50 mail mail.home.net 192.168.0.51 news news.home.net Since Netscape will not let you remove the default of "news" you might as well use it for your news servers name. Hopefully this got it for you. You now know more then many 1st tier Tech Support people. (The ones YOU get to talk to) Usually He/She has a database of common problems dealing with M$ Windoze and very little knowledge of his/her own to work with. If they are asked a question not in the database they might call 2nd tier, who knows a little more, etc. Jon Hunter Computer Consultant / PC Fixit Dude ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Win95 users will have to use winipcfg instead of ipconfig. This GUI will still give you the info but you won't be able to print it. Don't forget to click the "more info" button. Also make sure you look through ALL the adapters to make sure you are choosing the right one.