Re: [Sheflug] Tenuous Connection - More stupid newbie problems

["Alex Hudson" <nospam [at] alexhudson.com>]

Tenuous Connection - More stupid newbie problemsHi Paul.

If none of the internet programs are working (NS excepted), and your
ethernet connection between two PCs isn't working, they may be symptoms of
the same problem. Linux PCs are never 'off-network', as it were, they're
just not always connected to the same networks all of the time. Although,
having Netscape working means it's not completely broken - more likely,
you're expecting Linux to do something for you which it isn't doing!!

Try taking it one step at a time, work with what you have. Re-run the wvdial
configuration tool and look for the 'demand' settings, as Barrie suggests,
this is probably your problem with the connection going down when idle.
Usual settings for timeouts range from 60 seconds to 180 seconds, if it's
enabled at all.

Then try getting your other programs working - mail and stuff, I presume?.
If Netscape can browse the web, everything else ought to be able to get out
of the machine okay.

Lastly, do the ethernet between the two machines. Leave this til last,
because it's the hardest part. :)

Cheers,

Alex.

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul.Miller [at] csuh.nhs.uk
To: sheflug [at] vuw.ac.nz
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 1:23 PM
Subject: [Sheflug] Tenuous Connection - More stupid newbie problems


Dear All,
                Thankyou for your previous help. I am now a little closer to
getting connected to the internet. Compuserve don't support Linux so I
signed up with Uklinux, thinking that there was a significant possibility
that they might.  At first it made the connection but none of the programs
could 'see' the connection.
                So taking a Windows approach I reformatted the hard disk and
re-installed everything (after saving my home directory to a Zip disk). I
also took the opportunity of formatting the HD with the Reiser filing system
(I thought it would be slower but there is no perceptible difference).
                The new set up is less broken than before. Wvdial works and
I can use Netscape to browse the web. However it breaks the connection after
only a few seconds if it is idle, also none of the other internet type
programs appear to work. I guess I will have to dig out the configuration
files. Which config files do I need to dig out and where are they?
                There is still no progress with the ethernet connection
between the two PC's.
Regards
Paul J. Miller
PS emacs and vi are just editors, everyone should choose their own and it
should be no concern for anyone else.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word 
 "unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.