Instructions to Net connect Fedora using NTL broadband (UK)

[fezblog 0]

Hi,

 

If anyone has successfully got their NTL broadband connection working using Fedora I would be very grateful if they would post copies of their etho-cfg and any other relevant instructions here.

 

My connection through my ethernet card (a Compaq card which Fedora is recognising as an Intel chip - can read its machine address so seems no compatibility problem there) and TV digibox work fine in Win98, NTL know it can work but can't provide tech. support, and I've spent about a week wrestling with redhat-config-network, etho-cfg and have also tried ppp. I know it uses dhcp, but am not sure whether only the ethernet connection is needed, or whether it counts as ADSL, since NTL also supply our phone connection and I know the connection is upload/download asymmetric.

 

Thanks.

 

Long Live Linux! (when I can get it to work!)

[Maillion 0]

Quote:

Hi,

If anyone has successfully got their NTL broadband connection working using Fedora I would be very grateful if they would post copies of their etho-cfg and any other relevant instructions here.

My connection through my ethernet card (a Compaq card which Fedora is recognising as an Intel chip - can read its machine address so seems no compatibility problem there) and TV digibox work fine in Win98, NTL know it can work but can't provide tech. support, and I've spent about a week wrestling with redhat-config-network, etho-cfg and have also tried ppp. I know it uses dhcp, but am not sure whether only the ethernet connection is needed, or whether it counts as ADSL, since NTL also supply our phone connection and I know the connection is upload/download asymmetric.

Thanks.

Long Live Linux! (when I can get it to work!)

I can't help much, because I have cable modem, but what you sid sounds just like DSL... ;(

[fezblog 0]

hi Maillion and all:

 

A slightly more helpful guy at NTL broadband support did his best to help me. Basically he told me their cable broadband is not DSL, so I only have to configure the ethernet card - the default script is eth0-cfg if I remember right (still in windows for net access!) Don't have to touch ppp or the other 'wizards'. He read back to me the NIC machine address they have got, and it is the same one that Fedora is reading when I press the 'probe' button in redhat-config-network or whatever the gnome wizard is called.

 

Its supposed to be an absolute no-brainer - tick the dhcp option and your there - and it is - in windows !

 

So this is the kind of persistent niggly hitch which I think will - until its ironed out - prevent most ordinary non-techie types from deserting windows in droves for Linux (Fedora at any rate) cover discs. I am persisting because thereis an open source application - OpenCyc - which I really want to run and get to grips with, and it was either run it on Linux or upgrade win98 to XP. I am really in favour of the whole open source idea, and want to get involved, but its difficult when you can't even get your net access to work through the open source desktop. I had a RedHat (6.2 I think it was) cover disc lying around for ages, and I think a lot of people would like to try it, but it really will have to be just a bit more user-friendly still to attract and keep many more mainstream users from windows as their principle (non-gaming) desktop, which I would like it to be for me.

 

So.... the fact that you connect through a cable modem and me through a digibox (containing a modem) should not make for any difference. Apparently the ISP reads the NIC machine address of the ethernet card which was registered with them at installation and 'opens the door' for the relevant speed connection being paid for.

 

There is one discrepancy which could be causing the problem, now I think of it. Win98 correctly labels my Compaq Netelligent 10T card in 'Network adapters', but, Fedora, while reading its hex machine address correctly, labels it as ' #Intel Corp./825578/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100]. ' I was assuming that this referred to the chip on the card, but the last bit in square brackets makes me think that perhaps it is misrecognising it as a 100Mbps card when in fact it is only 10Mbps. I wonder if this could account for the glitch, and whether its correctable?