Please Help - ADSL/eth0 problems

[Nigel Wade]

Pepper&Joe wrote:
> I am running a Gigagbyte GA8S661FXMP-RZ Motherboard with 1 GB memory
> installed. It is a dual processor motherboard but I am only running
> one 1xP4 2.4 GHz CPU. I have 2 IDE drives (first in line) and one
> SATA drive where I have both XP and Fedora 7 installed. There are 3
> partitions on the SATA drive: the first one for XP, the second for
> storage and the third for Linux. I have a Radeon 9800 pro Video card
> and a Viewsonic VG2021m LCD monitor. I am having no problems
> whatsoever with sound or video.......I just can't get the internet
> working. My adaptor is a SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adaptor - Packet
> Scheduler Miniport, type, ethernet-csmacd, 100 Mbps. I have tried
> everything to get Linux hooked up to the internet.....I tried setting
> the eth0 to DHCP, BootP and Dialup, I tried changing the IP, Gateway
> and subnet masks from the values provided to me by my ISP (even
> though they are only needed for static IP's (and mine is dynamic) to
> "server"......and on and on and on...I cannot get eth0 to activate
> and so I am not even yet here mentioning whether my ADSL connection
> will activate or is setup right as it is my assumption that if eth0
> doesn't activate, neither will ADSL. I would sure appreciate any and
> all help. I am admittedly a newbie to Linux although I have tried
> installing it on several occasions alongside windows in the past, I
> have never really reached out for help with failed installs and just
> abandoned them. This is as far as I have ever got and I am anxious to
> make it work. Sound, video and everything are working just can't get
> hooked up to the internet which is my primary reason for wanting to
> run Linux. Cheeers Joseph
> 

What is your hardware configuration? You don't mention an ADSL 
modem/router anywhere.

You can't plug an Ethernet adaptor into an ADSL socket (well, you 
probably can physically...). You need a modem to connect to your ISP 
over ADSL, and to route between ADSL and Ethernet. Your Linux box should 
connect to the ADSL router, and most likely get its IP settings from 
that using DHCP.

-- 
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
             University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail :    nmw at ion.le.ac.uk
Phone :     +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555