Cable Modems

Summary: Contributed by John Paul Robson

• PPP over Ethernet
• @home networks

Time Warner's ~RoadRunner Cable modem in Memphis (and other areas probably) with Linux-Mandrake 6.1 HOWTO

Most of this HOWTO should work in any city with ~RoadRunner or any cable modem (maybe even DSL) but I have not tested it outside of Memphis, TN.

What you'll need:

• Linux-Mandrake 6.1 installed
• dhcpcd (installed by Linux-Mandrake)
• rrlogin.c (only if you're using ~RoadRunner in Memphis and maybe other area's)
• dhcp server ip address and default gateway ip address (I'll explain how to get these in a minute).

modprobe 3c59x

Before you start dhcpcd you need to link /etc/dhcpc to /etc/dhcpcd by typing at the terming:

cd /etc;ln -s dhcpcd dhcpc

Next we need to start the Dhcp client daemon, you can do this at the terminal by simply typing dhcpcd , but we'll add it to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit also.

If you never turn your computer off for more than an hour at a time you probably won't have to ever authenticate yourself with ~RoadRunner again, but if you do shutdown your computer often you will need to do one of two things:

• boot up another operating system and use a ~TimeWarner supported login program, then reboot to linux

• download rrlogin.c and use it to login. You will need to edit it before you can compile and use it. You will need to get the address of your dhcp server and default gateway in one of two ways:
• boot up another operating system and run the program: winipcfg
• open up /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth0.info (if you have more than one ethernet card in you computer this file may be named something different eg: dhcpcd-eth1.info), take note DHCPSIADDR and GATEWAY. Open up rrlogin.c and edit the lines at the top:
  ~#define AUTHHOST "" // fill in dhcp server here
  ~#define PROXYHOST "" // fill in gateway here

Okay now we need to compile rrlogin.c by typing the following command at a terminal:

gcc rrlogin.c -o rrlogin

mv rrlogin /sbin/

rrlogin /root/.rrlogin 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null

Okay now you should be able to get online fine.

• • Note that this should work for any glibc based GNU/Linux, or any Unix for that matter.

Ivan J. Wagner adds this comment about PPPOE:

>

>My local phone company, Bell Atlantic, switched from using static IP addresses for ADSL service to this new protocol called "PPP over Ethernet (pppoe)". This PPPOE protocol means that you can no longer just plug in your DSL modem and go, you now have to install some drivers which are only available for Windows and Mac. SUSE has a page (in English, TB) with info and links to various GNU/Linux PPPOE implementations. Many xDSL providers are apparently switching to PPPOE and it can be found not only in the U.S. but in Canada and Germany and probably lots of other places as well.

>

>If you are considering getting xDSL it is very important that you get an EXTERNAL DSL modem, there is no known support for internal modems nor is anybody believed to be writing any.

section index

Todd ~VanDen Broecke describes the setup procedure for the @home-network in Ontario, Canada (edited):

You can connect to rogers one of two ways, Static and DHCP. I chose Static1.1

To do this you need to know all necessary info from rogers, such as

• Your IP-Number
• Gateway (GWAY)
• DNS server addresses
• the subdomain (BIG MUST) eg: lndn1.on.wave.home.ca
• the control number (starts with cr and ends with -a eg: cr1234567-a)
• the HTTP proxy address

First make sure your network card is recognized by your system at boot-up. If you missed this type

dmesg

N*000 ethercard probed at 0x340: 00 54 67 4c b6 8c eth0: NE2000 found at: 0x340 using IRQ 10

If not, read up on your NIC and the HOWTOs for networking. Also make sure your NIC is assigned and not using ~PnP mode.

Once you have the network up, then goto your netconf or netcfg. One or the other will do1.1
I used 'netcfg' and I will use that as the example.

Please note, this is only an example and that these entries really don't exist1.1

Under Names:

Hostname: cr1234567-a

Domain: city.on.wave.home.com

Search for Hostnames in additional Domains:

Nameservers: 24.111.180.13

24.111.180.14

Under Hosts:

Click 'add' then enter:

IP: 24.111.180.13

Name: city.on.wave.home.com

Nicknames:

Under Interfaces: (click 'add' or 'edit eth0')

IP: 24.112.111.1

Netmask: 255.255.255.224

Under Routing:

Default Gateway: 24.114.190.113

Default Gateway Device: eth0

Device: eth0

network: 24.112.111.1

Netmask: 255.255.255.224

Gateway: 24.114.190.113

OK, now you should be ready to test it1.1 At this point I restarted GNU/Linux (have to install another NIC).

Goto the console and type

ping 24.111.180.13

ping www.netscape.com

Thetas it1 The rest of the setup is exactly the same as a ~WinDOZE setup, in Netscape.

section index

Related Resources:

Nine 'easy' steps to setup your @Home network under Mandrake
DSL HOWTO
Cablemodeminfo.Com

Revision / Modified: June 21, 2001 / July 25, 2000
Author: John Paul Robson et al.

Legal: This page is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License. Standard disclaimers of warranty apply. Copyright LSTB and Mandrakesoft.