Cable Internet Connection

English Network/Internet
1

I have just installed the latest suse. All works except access to the internet. I use comcast cable internet and the it does not recognize a default gateway. I called comcast and they do not offer linux support. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

2

As long as you are using DHCP (all CHSI accounts use DHCP) then you have no need to know your default gateway’s IP address (and it’s irrelevant if you are further separated by a wired/wireless router and its internal DHCP server). Just check to make sure that DHCP is working correctly. (Try ping -c 3 Google from a terminal session.) I’ve been using CHSI (since it was the DOCSIS-based ComcastAtHome) with DHCP and Linux/UNIX/BSDs without a quibble (this goes back to 2000).

3

PGHammer,

Thank you for the information. I am certain it is quite accurate, however, I need to know how to get Suse to work with my internet connection. I have tried the network feature, but no results. Any other ideas? I am still new to Suse and am not sure what other features it may have to correct this problem. Thanks.

edhlaw

4

A few of us have been tearing our hair out trying to get recent versions of opensuse to connect to the internet. My experience leads me to believe it has nothing to do with dhcp or comcast but rather with networkmanager. Which version of opensuse are you on?

I finally got the internet back on my laptop by upgrading to rc1. Networkmanager did not start automatically for me. I had to start it from the suse menu. That gave me a gray globe icon in the taskbar. Clicking on it showed that my network was already detected. It may be different for you, you may have to click on “new network” to get suse to see your network. Once it “saw” my network, clicking on my network’s strength indicator (in the pop-up menu) connected me and got me to the internet.

The key fact is that I had upgraded to rc1. Doing these steps in beta 5.2 did not work.

5

edhlaw wrote:
> PGHammer,
> Thank you for the information. I am certain it is quite accurate,
> however, I need to know how to get Suse to work with my internet
> connection. I have tried the network feature, but no results. Any
> other ideas? I am still new to Suse and am not sure what other features
> it may have to correct this problem. Thanks.
> edhlaw

You are not very clear as to what problems you are seeing, but it your
cable “modem” acts like a normal router with a DHCP server, then
configuring your internet connection in openSUSE is extremely easy! [If it
does not, then the following is probably useless, and I, unfortunately,
cannot tell you what you need to do.]

  1. Start YaST; select “Network Devices” then “Network Settings” — You
    should see the “Overview” panel containing the name(s) of the ethernet
    card(s) detected in your machine. Assuming you have one and only one,
    select that device. (It is probably already selected.)

  2. Click EDIT — It will probably tell you the device type is “Ethernet”
    with a configuration name of “eth0”. Click the radio box labeled “Dynamic
    Address” and select DHCP in the drop down.

  3. Click NEXT. You should go back to the “Overview” panel.

  4. Select the “Global Options” tab — Check the radio box
    labeled “Traditional Method with ifup”. (There is no advantage to
    using “NetworkManager” with a wired connection.) Personally, I have no
    problems with “Enable IPv6” checked; YMMV. You can play around with the
    DHCP options if you need/want to, but the default settings will probably
    work. These are: “Request Broadcast Response” is not checked; “DHCP Client
    Identifier” is empty; “Hostname to Send” is AUTO; “Change Default Route via
    DHCP” should be CHECKED.

  5. Select the “Hostname/DNS” tab — You probably want “Change Hostname via
    DHCP” checked; the alternative is to define a fixed “Hostname” and “Domain
    Name”. You probably want “Write Hostname to /etc/hosts” checked. You
    definitely want “Update DNS data via DHCP” checked.

  6. Select the “Routing” tab — Everything on this panel should be empty.

  7. Click FINISH.

  8. Enjoy!

6

Thank you so much. I will let you know if it works. If your gecko is broken, you are obsessed with Geico commercials.

7

I will try your suggestion and let you know if it works. If it works, I will enjoy fully. Thanks.

8

I have seen cases where, even with DHCP, the router did not forward DNS information. One may need to set the DNS statically. Good Luck.