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Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: Robert Magyar on September 24, 1999, 09:52:02 AM
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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
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Robert Magyar wrote:
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Dan Brown wrote:
> 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.
There is some automatic detection code which fails ungracefully
on non-PCI machines. If you are adventurous, you can get e-smith to run on an ISA bus machine. E-mail me for details if this is what you want to do.
> 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.
The installation doesn't complete correctly.
> > 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.
Indeed. Set the right driver name in the configuration and you won't lose that information.
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If you can help me it would be massively appreciated. I am visiting my friend for the weekend in Souther California. He has a cable modem with Cox @Home cable/internet service. I have not used e-smith before, but the president of our Linux Users Group back home in Washington state told me about it. He said it was easy to use. So far I'm fairly impressed but it would be nice to connect to the internet. I have read through the bulliten board discussion group and have not seen a final follow showing that your problem was solved. I've got the same problem.
The only settings that my friend has are the computer or system name to get the IP address. Joe of e-smith wrote to give the e-smith system the same name in the web based manager. I did that. I also had the problem of the 3Com 3c900 card on eth1 and a different card on eth0... I switched the cards and now I don't get the eth1 failed anymore on bootup, but I can't connect. Can you help? If only have till Monday morning to get this running.
Shawn Pack
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Shawn,
I'm sorry to say that our leading explanation for this behavior is an incompatibility between the DHCP client we used in our e-smtih server (dhcpcd) and the DHCP server being used by some ISPs.
We are working on this and, in particular, spending a lot of cycles providing individualized assistance to any supported customers impacted by this, but don't have a simple fix for you at this time.
Switching from dhcpcd to pump (which is another DHCP client already installed on the e-smith server) seems to help achieve connectivity in some cases.
Sorry for the frustration you must be experiencing.
Best of luck,
Kim
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Kim,
I appreciate the quick response. I did see the posting about using pump. But will that take into account the system name (which I gather is hostname) that the ISP needs? Also, the suggested using of a different version of the DHCPCD RPM was interesting. Would I get this from using a Red Hat 5.2 package, or just going out on the net to find the latest update. I'm a total Linux newbie.
Shawn
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Charlie Brady has sent us an updated dhcpcd RPM. At least one ADSL user (US West, Cisco 675 router/bridge) was able to get running in NAT/router mode using this RPM - when they couldn't get an IP address using the original version - it would hang while setting up eth1.
For anyone who wants to try updating their RPM, here are the instructions:
1. At the e-smith console, type Ctrl-Alt-F3. Then at the prompt, log in as "root" using your current system password.
2. Type the command "ftp ftp.e-smith.net"
3. When it prompts you for a name, enter "anonymous"
4. When it prompts you for a password, enter your email address
5. It should say "guest login ok". Type the command "binary"
6. Type the command "cd pub/e-smith-3.0/updates/RPMS"
7. Type "get dhcpcd-1.3.18pl1-2.i386.rpm" to download the file
8. When the transfer is complete, type "quit"
9. Type the following command to upgrade the RPM (you should see a number of hash marks printed across the screen):
rpm -Uvh dhcpcd-1.3.18pl1-2.i386.rpm
10. Finally, switch back to the e-smith console using Ctrl-Alt-F1 and reboot the e-smith server. (No need to log out of the other screen, since the reboot will take care of that.)
If anyone has had trouble with DHCP, please let us know whether this fixes it. Thanks very much,
- Joe Morrison
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I downloaded the dhcpcd rpm you suggested and installed it. On my first try it didn't work. I then edited the ifup script and removed the -h {hostname} from the command line and everything worked. I remember trying this with the original version and it didn't help. My ISP is AT&T Cable Services(MediaOne). Thanks for your persistence in finding a solution. If I can provide any other information, just ask.
Bob Magyar
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Hello Bob,
Thanks very much for your post. I'm surprised the -h option caused problems, but am glad to know it. We may have to offer an option in the e-smith interface to turn this option on and off.
- Joe