Dear Civileme and friends:
Well, as luck would have it, a minor error in KDE led me to the solution
of my Internet Sharing problem. All symptoms have disappeared. I have
checked several times by rebooting. Internet Sharing is once again
working flawlessly.
A KDE init file error led me to do an update of LM 8.0 (Install, Expert,
Update). In doing this, I was asked once again to configure my Internet
Connection. This in itself had nothing to do with my problem, since my
configuration was perfectly fine. However, a few minutes later LM 8.0
asked me which services I wanted to start at boot-time. And -- eureka!
-- when I saw named and found out just what it does, that is, that it
part of the BIND system (and I know, even though I am a newbie) that
BIND is one of the key programs that are part of Internet Sharing, I
realized from an earlier error message (where, during bootdown, I got a
red X for named) that apparently I had checked this critical server
off, that is, that it needs to be on every time you bootup. It was a
guess, but right on the money. I checked named, finished my Update,
rebooted and suddenly LM 8.0 recognized eth0 and eth1 during bootup like
it always used to. I logged into the console, into KDE, clicked on the
Internet icon (Network Monitoring), and, bingo, eth0, eth1 and ppp0 all
connected flawlessly. I checked our second computer, and, instantly,
ADSL was running there, too.
I am glad to have found the solution. I was about to pull out my hair. I
know that in these kind of cases, it is very difficult if not impossible
for someone to troubleshoot something like this correctly. There are too
many variables. I hope my explanation helps others who have a similar
problem. You have to check named ipchains iptables and any other
services that are needed for Internet Sharing. I just assumed that since
they were servers I didn't them. Normally, I don't use any servers. But
if you have installed Internet Sharing, you must use certain servers. LM
8.0's Internet Sharing (Mandrake Control Center, Internet Sharing
Wizard) does it automatically and it will work flawlessly (as it did in
my case for three months until yesterday). But you must not choke off
its air supply by checking off the servers necessary for its operation.
Keep the necessary servers on during bootup. If in doubt, ask the
experts on the list precisely which services are required.
Once again, my thanks to everyone who tried to help. I was lucky. It's
like finding a needle in a haystack.
Thanks again.
Benjamin
--
Sher's Russian Web
http://www.websher.net
Benjamin and Anna Sher
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
