Configuring RH8 to use an ADSL Modem/Router

[Graeme Nichols]

Hello Rick and Folks,

Further to the help you have already given me regarding ADSL 
Modem/Routers I now have my ADSL line activated but I have been 
spectacularly unsuccessful in getting it to to work on my RH8 box. I 
have been reduced to using Win98SE for my email at the moment, but not 
Oulook Express :-)

The ADSL Modem/Router works just fine under Win98SE. I followed the 
configuration sequence from the Modem/Router instructions which are as 
follows:

1. Select the Ethernet card from the network devices.
2. Select dynamically assigned ip address.
3. Disable DNS
4. Fire up a browser and configure the ADSL modem as follows:
a. Router, PPPoA (my ISP informed me this works more reliably than PPPoE 
on Billion ADSL Modem/Routers), LLC, VPI/VCI <values 8/35), <username>, 
<password>, obtain an IP address automatically, connect on demand, 
NAT=SUA (single user). The next screen displays the results of your 
choices on the WAN side and the default router ip addr. (192.168.1.254), 
netmask (255.255.255.0) etc.

And away it all went. No problems.

So I followed the same procedure on my RH8 box and immediately ran into 
problems. By setting eth0 to a dynamically assigned ip address I can't 
activate it. Delete that device and create an xDSL device (ppp0) using 
the eth0 card, dynamic ip address etc. I can activate it (takes about 40 
secs.) and 10 secs later it becomes inactive. I haven't changed any of 
the ADSL configuration in the Modem/Router as all that should be correct 
as they are the defined settings from my ISP.

The contents of the network files and log are as follows:

  Contents of the /etc/sysconfig/network file:-

[root at localhost graeme]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain
DOMAINNAME=localdomain
GATEWAYDEV=ppp0

Contents of the /etc/sysctl.conf file:-

[root at localhost graeme]# cat /etc/sysctl.conf
# Kernel sysctl configuration file for Red Hat Linux
#
# For binary values, 0 is disabled, 1 is enabled.  See sysctl(8) and
# sysctl.conf(5) for more details.

# Controls IP packet forwarding
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0

# Controls source route verification
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1

# Controls the System Request debugging functionality of the kernel
kernel.sysrq = 0

# Controls whether core dumps will append the PID to the core filename.
# Useful for debugging multi-threaded applications.
kernel.core_uses_pid = 1

The last few lines from /var/log/messages:-

May 29 12:57:07 localhost pppd[2773]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
May 29 12:57:07 localhost pppd[2773]: Using interface ppp0
May 29 12:57:07 localhost pppd[2773]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/1
May 29 12:57:07 localhost /etc/hotplug/net.agent: assuming ppp0 is 
already up
May 29 12:57:38 localhost pppd[2773]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
May 29 12:57:38 localhost pppd[2773]: Connection terminated.
May 29 12:57:38 localhost /etc/hotplug/net.agent: NET unregister event 
not supported
May 29 12:57:42 localhost pppoe[2774]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
May 29 12:57:42 localhost pppd[2773]: Exit.
May 29 12:57:42 localhost adsl-connect: ADSL connection lost; attempting 
re-connection.
May 29 12:57:47 localhost pppd[2843]: pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
May 29 12:57:47 localhost pppd[2843]: Using interface ppp0
May 29 12:57:47 localhost pppd[2843]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/1
May 29 12:57:47 localhost /etc/hotplug/net.agent: assuming ppp0 is 
already up
May 29 12:58:18 localhost pppd[2843]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
May 29 12:58:18 localhost pppd[2843]: Connection terminated.
May 29 12:58:18 localhost /etc/hotplug/net.agent: NET unregister event 
not supported
May 29 12:58:22 localhost pppoe[2844]: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
May 29 12:58:22 localhost pppd[2843]: Exit.

Now all the above must mean something but to me, network novice, it 
doesn't jump out at me.

In my simple mind all I thought would be necessary would be to configure 
eth0 to dynamic ip address, allow users to start and stop it and all 
would work.

So, how do I set up this ADSL Modem/Router to work under RH8??

I desperately need help...

-- 

Kind regards,
Graeme Nichols.