No internet access through DSL router

[Pov625]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to get SuSE 9.0 Professional Linux working on the internet but I can't get it to do anything. I have it installed already on a PC which I have connected through a DSL router and switch using ethernet networking.

Since I started messing around with Linux I've already tried the Red Hat 9.0 distribution which I took off a while ago. I purchased SuSE because it seemed like also another popular version. I have looked in YaST and tried to change the network configuration settings but I still can't access a web page.

My PC is set to dual boot with Windows XP and I can access the net with that from the router, my router has a web page based Telnet setup as it's quite new which I just log into from whatever OS I'm using which I can also do with SuSE 9.0 Pro. I'm able to change the settings for the router from SuSE but I can't do anything much more. All I can seem to do is set SuSE to DHCP which is what I did with Red Hat, when I first had the ADSL activated and installed the DSL router and switch Red Hat worked straight away I didn't have to do anything to it.

I would have thought that SuSE would have been the same and just work once it was up and running but sadly this was not what I imagined it to be. Until I can access the net then I don't really have much reason to even boot it up, I'm still using Windows XP as it's the only thing that works and at least I know more about what I'm doing in Windows. I don't have any worries about things like firewall as my router has the NAT firewall running before it even reaches the PC, the need for a Linux software firewall isn't necessary in my situation.

If anybody can suggest an answer to my problem then I may be able to do something about it as long as I'm given detailed instructions on what commands I need to run in the terminal etc.. Any help would be most appreciated.

[happybunny]

can you get to a command line?

type this:

ifconfig

it should list eth0 with an IP and lo

if you dont see eth0, your network isn't running.

try

ifup eth0

and see what it says back at you.

[Pov625]

Hi,

I typed ifconfig and this is what came up:

eth0

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8D:A4:8E:BE
inet addr:192.168.1.6 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::250:8dff:fea4:8ebe/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:23 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:2432 (2.3 Kb) TX bytes:288 (288.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x6000

lo

Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:954 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:954 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:62956 (61.4 Kb) TX bytes:62956 (61.4 Kb)

Then I typed ifup eth0 and it did nothing, just went onto the next command line..

[happybunny]

it looks fine...you have an IP so it "should work".

boot to suse and open web browser....

enter this as url:

216.109.118.79


that is yahoo.com....if that works we know you have dns issues.

keep me posted

[Pov625]

Ahh..

that's weird, now I can see the yahoo.com page like you said

what should I do now?

[happybunny]

thats good...that means your machine is on the internet, but with no name resolution.

I don't know suse very well but look for this:

/var/lib/dhcp/dhcp_leases.eth0

that will list all the settings that the dhcp server is giving you, including dns.

My guess is it is not giving you dns or it is giving out the dsl router as the dns lookups or something.

let me know if that file is there and if there is a nameserver listed.

[happybunny]

if you know your ISP's dns servers you can put them in manually, and tell dhcp to not accept those settings with this info:

http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129489&highlight=dhcp

keep at it! we are almost there!

[Pov625]

ok, I'm in the lib directory but there isn't one called 'dhcp', only 'dhcpcd'..

inside that one there's 4 files:

dhcpcd-eth0.cache
dhcpcd-eth0.info
dhcpcd-eth0.info.old
dhcpcd-eth0.timestamp

am I looking in the wrong place here?

[happybunny]

no, i think thats it....

look in dhcpcd-eth0.info

that might list what dns or name server you are getting from the dhcp server.

Check out your ISP's website...we need to know what dns servers to use...but you can't get on the net can you?

put this into your /etc/resolv.conf file

"nameserver 199.166.28.10"

No quotes of course

that should start you on the way, although the next reboot, dhcp will over write that entry, but we can work on that later.

[Pov625]

I'm ok about getting on the net etc.. cause I'm sharing my connection with XP at the moment or I wouldn't be able to post any messages at all. I'm not really all that sure what I need to find on the providers website, all the connection settings are already stored in the router like my network ID. With it being firewalled through NAT all that I have to go on is the gateway address (192.168.1.1) different from my providers dynamic IP address.

In that file (dhcpcd-eth0.info) it mentions that IP a few times:

IPADDR=192.168.1.6
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.1.0
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
HOSTNAME='linux'
DNS=192.168.1.1
DHCPSID=192.168.1.1
DHCPGIADDR=0.0.0.0
DHCPSIADDR=0.0.0.0
DHCPCHADDR=00:50:8D:A4:8E:BE
DHCPSHADDR=00:0D:88:F5:02:72
DHCPSNAME=''
LEASETIME=604800
RENEWALTIME=302400
REBINDTIME=529200
INTERFACE= 'eth0'
CLASSID= 'Linux 2.4.21-99-default i686'
CLIENTID='linux'

If you want me to add to the /etc/resolv.conf file I can do that but I haven't much idea where exactly where that nameserver 199.166.28.10 line would go..?

[Pov625]

In regards to the resolv.conf file there's only 1 line in it..

'domain local'

nothing else, should I delete that line or add before/after it?

[happybunny]

so this is the issue:

your SUSE box uses 192.168.1.1 for DNS lookups which i'm guessing is your dsl router.

This is most likely the same entry when using your XP box, so technically it should work in SUSE.

SInce I don't know what SUSE's problem is, I can only get this to work in a round about way.

You need your resolv.conf to look like:

domain local
nameserver 199.166.28.10
nameserver 199.166.31.3
nameserver 204.110.10.2

The above numbers are all dns nameserver i found on the web. I cannot test them from my ISP so I am not sure they will work. See if you ISP can tell you what their DNS name servers are and put them in the lines above instead.

Then edit:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
add:
PEERDNS=no

What this will do is ignore what the DHCP server (dsl router) is telling it for a nameserver and will rely on the /etc/resolv.conf file for any resolution.

Try that out and see what happens.

The next step is to figure out why SUSE doesn't like your dsl setup.

[Pov625]

Hi,

Ok, I tried all that, I edited the resolv.conf file and added the lines like you said. Then I've also gone and edited the ifcfg-eth0 file too which in SuSE was in etc/sysconfig/network. I wasn't sure where to put the PEERDNS=no line so I added it to the top, I've tried to load a web page up again but it's still no different.

To be honest I haven't a clue what my ISP's DNS nameservers are or how to go about finding them, all I know is what info I was given from my provider when I subscribed, if there's a way of finding out then I'd be interested to know that for myself? Seeing that I've never had to find out those from being mostly a Windows user, any insight to this would be useful as it's not something I really understand much about.

[Pov625]

I take it nobody is gonna help me then. All I can say is that I'm very disappointed with this SuSE linux, it'd be something if I could just get it on the net but I guess that won't happen. I just wish I hadn't of wasted my £30 on it now and might as well just throw the discs in the bin. What a load of rubbish, I think I will just stick to windows xp in future, at least it works and plus the fact there's a lot more games for it and I know what the programs are I need and how to use them. I think after I've written this post I shall go and delete it from my PC and forget about it. I can't really say that it was a smart thing to do in buying this operating system but I must just learn from my mistakes and move on. Shame on you SuSE for fooling me into thinking it would be something great, maybe that's the reason why all the other distro's are free, cause you never know whether they work or not. Plus I don't think I'll be bothering to buy the SuSE 9.1 either, I feel that I would just be throwing even more money away when I could spend it on something different instead.

Shame on you SuSE, Shame on you..

[EnigmaOne]

Don't get so bent out of shape about it.
Contact your ISP and ask them for your DNS server IP addresses.
(Pick up the phone and call their customer service/support department.)

Edit your resolv.conf to point to those addys.
Restart the network service.
Start browsing.

[tcarradine]

who's your ISP... if you have access to the web on another machine (to post questions to JL?) then you should be able to find the DNS on their website. you can use .. 208.200.248.1 as a test to see if that's what the problem is. Thats the DNS for a local ISP in washington state. if that works, all you need to do is find you DNS and enter it manually. don't blame the OS if the router isn't passing the DNS information to your machine.

Tim

[JohnT]

Your supposed to call your ISP whenever you have problems with resolving names. Why does that sound so strange? Just ask them for nameserver addresses for your location. I do whenever there's an equipment problem with mine and it changes........its just using the resources of your ISP, which is what you are paying for.