RE: Newbie Question

["Rick Commo" <Rick.Commo@verizon.net>]

>>All is ok until I  get to where I specify the APT configuration.  Although
>>my system is connected via a LAN to a cable modem, any attempt to ftp,
>>telnet, or ping anything besides 'localhost' results in 'Network is
>>unreachable'.

It looks like your network card is not configured.  Here's an outline of how
to get go about configuring it.

----------------------------------------------------
Installing the driver for the D-Link DFE350-TX+ card
and assign it to "eth0"
----------------------------------------------------
(1) add "alias eth0 rtl8139" to /etc/modules.conf
    (look at the file first for instructions on how to do this)

(2) insmod rtl8139


---------------------------------------
configure eth0 for static IP addressing
---------------------------------------
(1) edit /etc/network/interfaces to include
         auto et0
         iface eth0 inet static
             address xxx.yyy.zzz.***
             netmask 255.255.255.0
             network xxx.yyy.zzz.0
             broadcast xxx.yyy.zzz.255
             gateway xxx.yyy.zzz.1

(2) edit or create /etc/resolv.conf to include
         search vz.dsl.genuity.net dsl.genuity.net genuity.net
         nameserver 4.2.2.1
         nameserver 4.2.2.2
         nameserver 4.2.2.3

(3) ifconfig eth0 up


PLEASE NOTE the following

(1) This is shown for my Network card which is a D-Link DFE350-TX+.
    You will need to use the driver module for your card in place of rtl8139

(2) I have shown static IP configuration. If your ISP requires that you use
    DHCP then I *think* the lines for /etc/network/interfaces would be
		auto eth0
		iface wth0 inet dhcp
    Otherwise you must supply information for all the static IP addresses
    and masks for your situation

(3) I believe that /etc/resolv will be properly filled out by the system
    of you are using DHCP, otherwise you must supply the correct into.


When you are done with all this, reboot your system.  When it is up log in
as root and do "lsmod" to see if your NIC driver is loaded.  If it is then
do "ifconfig".  It should list out two blocks of text, one for localhost and
one for eth0.

The commands:
ifconfig eth0 up     (or "ifup eth0")
ifconfig eth0 down   (or "ifdown eth0)
are use to shutdown and bring up the network for the interface eth0.  When
it is brought up I believe that it loads any new configuration information.

I am a newbie to Debian myself, but I think this will get you going.  Hope
this helps.

Cheers,
-rick