Topic: DHCP and Cable Modems

[Robert Magyar]

Has anyone had experience setting up with a cable modem.  I have MediaOne and was able to configure RH 5.2 to connect properly with DHCP to the cable modem.  I am testing out this product and it fails to get an IP address.  I have verified that I am connected to the proper NIC and don't know where else to look.

We are using this product at my work with a dedicated T1 and it works great.  We are waiting for port redirecting to be incorporated into the product though.  I was amazed at how smoothly the installation and configuration went.  We haven't has a glitch yet.

Another question.  I originally tried to install on a 486 with Intel ISA NIC's.  It did not go well.  Are you planning on supporting lower hardware requirements?  It seems like this would be a great product for people who want to use there cable modem with multiple PC's and have some old PC laying around.  Just a thought.

Thanks,
Robert Magyar

[Charlie Brady]

Robert Magyar wrote:
-------------------------------

Another question.  I originally tried to install on a 486 with Intel ISA NIC's.  It did not go well.  Are you planning on supporting lower hardware requirements?
-------------------------------

It's currently possible to get it working on a 486 with ISA NIC, but you need to get under the hood. I hope to work out what needs to
change to make it possible out of the box,
and I hope that the e-smith people will make it part of the standard distribution.

Charlie

[Kim Morrison]

Hi Charlie and Robert,

Thanks for the posts.  On the subject of ISA Ethernet adapters...  

OF COURSE, we would be really happy to include enhancements in how the e-smith software handles ISA NICs, so long as it doesn't impact the autodetection of PCI hardware.  

We probably wouldn't include those ISA cards on the "official supported list" (where we warranty to paying customers that the NIC will operate with our software) but we could probably set up an "unofficial supported list" (where no such warranty would apply).  

Thanks again for the posts.  Cheers!

Kim

[Kim Morrison]

Robert,

On the subject of Cablemodems...

Actually, we have a fair amount of experience with our product and cablemodems and have found it works great.

Is MediaOne using dynamic IP address assignment and DHCP?  If so, have you set up the server to accept DHCP on the external interface?  It sounds like you have, but I wanted to ensure that.   Do you have the right IP address of the machine providing you with that DHCP support?

Also, a lot of cablemodem companies are now forcing you to go through their proxy servers.  The e-smith server and gateway works quite well with them - the proxy server impedes a few minor things, for example our "test your internet connectivity" function will fail erroneously.  

Other than that, we've found that our product works really well with cablemodems...  If I haven't hit the mark here, can you please post more about the set up?

Thanks!

Kim

[Robert Magyar]

It is configured for DHCP on the external interface.  As far as the IP address of the machine providing the DHCP support, I thought there was some kind of broadcast message that handled finding the server.  If I hook up my RH 5.2 box it is able to get the IP address through DHCP.

Here is some setup info:
Pentium 166
48Mb Ram
1.2G HD
2 - intel pro/100 adapters

e-smith:
setup as Server and gateway
DHCP without DNS update
Local DHCP off

I am able to connect on the local adapter.
On bootup when bringing up eth1 it gives a message that it cannot get an IP address.

Thanks,
Bob

[Kim Morrison]

Robert,

What was I thinking - of course you don't need the DHCP server's IP address! I should not respond before coffee in the a.m.  Sorry about that.

We're looking into which DCHP server is used by your cable company, MediaOne.  We'll post back when we have a better idea of what the problem could be.

Kim

[Joseph Morrison]

Hello Robert,

Many cablemodems remember the MAC address of your ethernet card, and only work with that card. But if you power off the cablemodem, wait a couple of minutes, then power it on again - it will forget the MAC address and then you can use it with a different ethernet card.

So my first suggestion is to power off the cablemodem for a while before connecting the e-smith server and gateway.

If that doesn't work, here is another possibility. I have heard a nasty rumour that sometimes Mediaone assigns IP addresses based on the name of your system (passed in the -h argument to dhcpcd, which is what e-smith uses). Does your RedHat 5.2 system use the -h argument? If so, try giving your e-smith system the same name (in the web-based manager).

Let us know what happens! Good luck,
- Joe

[Bengt Norhager]

Hi!

Regarding isa network interface cards, all modules for them are allready installed. The only you need is to edit /etc/conf.modules Login to the console as root by holding down Alt+F3 and the password is the same as admin. You can use any editor you like for example vi or pico. Type pico /etc/conf.modules and press enter. Add a line like this:

alias eth0 3c509
alias eth1 wd

You need to know the name of the modules you need and make sure that PNP (Plug and Play) are disabled on each interface. You might need some parameter as io address and irq, like this example:

alias eth0 ne irq=10 io=0x280
alias eth1 ne irq=11 io=0x300

Bengt

[Gary Neil]

Hi,

I am having the same problem as Robert

The difference is I'm using a ADSL Modem (cisco 675)
and uswest.

When booting I get the error that eth1 cannot get an
IP address. I've tried everything i can think of.
The modem is setup using dhcp and NAT it works fine
on the win machine and the linux (mandrake) machine.

I'm open to any and all help...
Thanks.

[Joseph Morrison]

One possibility would be to try different DHCP clients and see if other clients work. The DHCP standards seem to be a bit loose and apparently not all clients work with all servers.

The e-smith server and gateway version 3.0 ships with the dhcpcd-1.3.17pl2-1 client, and gets an IP address using the command:

/sbin/dhcpcd -d -h "hostname" $DEVICE

We switched from "pump" to "dhcpcd" because pump cannot call a user-defined program when the IP address changes.

One easy experiment might be to try installing different versions of the dhcpcd RPM. (NOT the "dhcpd" RPM, which is the DHCP server and has only one letter "c" in it

Or try switching back to "pump" by editing the file /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts and changing the line:

 if /sbin/dhcpcd -d -h "{ $SystemName }" $DEVICE ; then      

to

  if /sbin/pump -i $DEVICE ; then

And then  update the real ifup file by typing:

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event manager-misc

Hopefully one of these solutions will work for you,
- Joe

[Gordon Rowell]

I've been having "fun" with dhcpcd and a Motorola CyberSurfr
cable modem attached to the Telstra Big Pond cable network down
here.

I have two Ethernet cards - an ISA 3c503 and a PCI 3c900.

If I select the 3c900/eth1 and set up dchp on it for the cable modem, nothing happens - dhcpcd times out.

If, however, I select the 3c503/eth1 and the 3c900/eth0,
it works.

I have swapped the configuration around a few times and it works with 3c900/eth0 and 3c503/eth1 and fails the other way.

Those having problems with cable modems might like to try the same thing. I'd be interested if it helps anyone else.

I also tried all of the solutions posted on www.searchlinux.com (search "dhcpcd eth1"), but none of them helped.

Can anyone venture an explanation?

Gordon (happy to have his cablemodem working )

P.S. In case anyone wants to dig that deeply, I added 3c503 support by adding lines to /sbin/e-smith/ethernet.

Joe/Kim - maybe we could have a submenu for unsupported cards?

[Dan Brown]

Just one change would make this quite possible: in the screen where the user selects a driver, give a list of _all_ installed net drivers, and leave an options line.  It's easy enough to manually make the changes in conf.modules, but if you subsequently ever change any settings through the main configuration screen, they get overwritten.  Alternatively, just ask the user to enter the module name rather than selecting from a list.

[Charlie Brady]

Dan Brown wrote:

> Just one change would make this quite possible: in the screen
> where the user selects a driver, give a list of _all_
> installed net drivers, and leave an options line.

ISA NICs, yes, but at present you are still limited to PCI based machines. Perhaps the next release of the install code will also cater for non-PCI machines.

> It's easy enough to
> manually make the changes in conf.modules, but if you
> subsequently ever change any settings through the main
> configuration screen, they get overwritten.

No, if the options line is, e.g. "options ne io=0x300" then it
won't be overwritten.

[Bengt Norhager]

Dan Brown wrote:

   
   
   > It's easy enough to
   > manually make the changes in conf.modules, but if you
   > subsequently ever change any settings through the main
   > configuration screen, they get overwritten.

Yes, this is absolutely correct. You also need to edit  /home/e-smith/configuration as well.

EthernetDriver1=unknown
EthernetDriver2=unknown

Replace (unknown) to the file name of your driver without (.o) and it will not overwrite /etc/conf.modules when you change any settings through the console manager.

EthernetDriver1=3c509
EthernetDriver2=ne

[Dan Brown]

Charlie Brady wrote:

> ISA NICs, yes, but at present you are still limited to PCI
> based machines. Perhaps the next release of the install code
> will also cater for non-PCI machines.

How is it limited to PCI machines?  I know they list that in their system requirements, but AFAIK, RedHat 6 doesn't have any such requirement.  Sure, it won't autoprobe for ISA NICs (so you'd have to enter the driver and options manually in conf.modules), but what else does it need a PCI bus for?  I seem to recall a statement from E-smith (maybe on this board somewhere) to the effect that PCI wasn't really needed, but it made device detection much easier.

> No, if the options line is, e.g. "options ne
> io=0x300" then it won't be overwritten.

However, if you've set "alias eth0 ne", _that_ will get overwritten (since ne is an ISA driver, which doesn't show on the list), and the options will then be a moot point.  However, Bengt seems to have given a fix for this, which is cool.