Re: Getting linux to detect my modem - HELP!

Deepu Joseph said on Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 10:55:09AM +0000,:

 >   I am a total newbie to this linux and free software thing. I

Ah. We all are, at some point or other. 
 
 >   recently installed red hat linux taroon edition on a partition of
 >   my computer.  

Good. 

 >   Now the prblem  is, I cannot connect to  the internet using linux
 >   (Now on  XP). I  have an asianet  broadband connection,  with the
 >   MCNS cable modem connected via ethernet to my computer.

Ok. So, the `modem'  is out of the picture - it  is NOT a problem with
the modem.
 
 >   Linux does detect my ethernet card as eth0 . But the PC light on

Ok. So the problem is with  the ethernet card - or rather, your kernel
is not detecting it, or not loading the correct module.

1. What  card  is it?  `on  board'?? Or  a  separate  pci card?  Which
   chipset? (do `lspci'); and also look under the hood.

2. What motherboard and chipset are you using?

3. What is the output of `uname -r'?
   
 >   my modem does not turn on. In windows, for the PC light on my

That is because the card is not  talking to the modem. Get the card to
work; for which we need more info about your hardware.
 
 >   modem to blink, I  need to set the link speed of  the modem to 10
 >   Half duplex. How do I do that in linux? 

See the manual page for ifconfig. (`man ifconfig'). You will also need
to install the `ethtool' package. 

 >   At present, on startup, linux fails when trying to detect my IP from eth0

This  should  mean  that  dhcp  has been  installed.  DHCP-client  was
installed  because your  OS detected  a network  card.  Probably, your
kernel does not have the appropriate modules compiled / loaded. 

And just  to confirm -  are you sure  you have a modem  which connects
over the ethernet card?  (and not on which plugs into the USB port?)

-- 
Mahesh T. Pai

REVOLUTION, n. An abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.