LCDB: Help for @HOME Users Connecting to the Internet (printable)

Originally published: Tuesday, 2 October 2001	Author: Dmitri Dimanise
Published to: learn_articles_firststep/General	Page: 1/1 [Standard view]
Help for @HOME Users Connecting to the Internet Today seemed to us a most appropriate day to publish this concise tech. note on connecting to the Internet using the now bankrupt @Home service. If you've had trouble using your cable modem with Linux and @Home you ain't seen nothing yet. But, we wouldn't waste your time, @HOME will be around for a while, Chapter 11 is not the same as Chapter 7. So if you're a Linux @HOME users here's some good news for a change: we hope this article will help you stay connected.

Many cable users, especially that use Rogers @HOME, have trouble connecting to the Internet. The problems range from your IP number changes to you just can't connect to the Internet from the first time. There is no help from the ISP: These days they even don't give you the information about your computer like your IP or your Gateway. So here is how to get your information and how to use it, assuming that you don't have trouble with your hardware configuration.

Getting Information

To get information about your computer go to https://ms2.home.net/MultipleIP archive.org and login using your Username and Password. Remember to use your Primary Username and not the Additional one.

NOTE If the above link doesn't work you can also go to the Member Services page at http://home-members.excite.com archive.org. On the left Menu click on Home Networking, and then click on the View Your IP Address which should bring you to the login page.

Now that you are logged in you have some options, so go to View Current Addresses. Now scroll to the bottom of the page and under Tips: section find "Unix Users" and click on the provided link. Somewhere in the middle you should now have a table with everything you need. (e.g. your IP, Subnet Mask, Gateway/Router, Host, DNS Servers and Domain).

Editing Configuration Files

Now here are the files that you need to edit:

File:	Should Contain:	Example:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0	DEVICE=your ethernet card BOOTPROTO=dhcp BROADCAST=first three numbers of the IP and 255 at the end IPADDR=your ip NETMASK=your netmask NETWORK=first three numbers of your ip and 0 at the end ONBOOT=yes	DEVICE=eth0 BOOTPROTO=dhcp BROADCAST=24.123.83.255 IPADDR=24.123.83.175 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=24.123.83.0 ONBOOT=yes
/etc/sysconfig/network	NETWORKING=yes HOSTNAME=your hostname DOMAINNAME=your domain name GATEWAY=your gateway	NETWORKING=yes HOSTNAME=cr123456-a DOMAINNAME=yec1.on.wave.home.com GATEWAY=24.123.83.1
/etc/hosts	IP HOST HOST.Domain	24.123.83.175 cr123456-a cr123456-a.yec1.on.wave.home.com
/etc/HOSTNAME	HOST	cr123456-a
/etc/resolv.conf	nameserver Primary DNS nameserver Sec. DNS search Domain	nameserver 24.112.80.13 nameserver 24.112.80.14 search yec1.on.wave.home.com

After you have finished editing the files, as root update the configuration by typing /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup eth0. After that you should be able to ping www.yahoo.com. Here's an example:

[root@cr123456-a /root]# /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup eth0 Determining IP information for eth0... done. [root@cr123456-a /root]# ping www.yahoo.com PING www.yahoo.akadns.net (64.58.76.224) from 24.123.83.175 : 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from w3.dcx.yahoo.com (64.58.76.224): icmp_seq=0 ttl=245 time=46.773 msec 64 bytes from w3.dcx.yahoo.com (64.58.76.224): icmp_seq=1 ttl=245 time=49.969 msec 64 bytes from w3.dcx.yahoo.com (64.58.76.224): icmp_seq=2 ttl=245 time=39.968 msec 64 bytes from w3.dcx.yahoo.com (64.58.76.224): icmp_seq=3 ttl=245 time=39.962 msec --- www.yahoo.akadns.net ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 39.962/44.168/49.969/4.352 ms [root@cr123456-a /root]#

If you get something that looks like above, well done, you are connected to the internet.