BryanC

Hi everyone - I've not much hope of finding a quick answer here - but I'll ask anyway - you never know!

Linuxy question first...

I've a got a little 2 PC network going at home. A nice shiny new(ish) 1800XP Athlon PC running XP, which I use for games, and the missus uses for pretty much everything, and a slightly antiquated PIII 733 running Mandrake 8.1 (with the stock kernel on it).

I've been trying for the past couple of days to get IP Masqerading and Diald running on it, so that when aforementioned missus wants to surf the net, she doesn't have to anything complicated, like dial the ISP

IPMasq-ing is working now - but diald doesn't want to play ball. It detects the request from the XP box for an internet address, starts dialing the phone - but the syslog is reporting a failure to find the ppp0 interface. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Another (slightly) linuxy question.

Earlier this year, I must have wasted a good three months or so trying to get DHCP working from the linux box to the XP machine. Turns out I had a dodgy ethernet card. It wasn't completely screwed - I could see the DHCPDISCOVER messages coming from the XP box, and could see the DHCPOFFER messages going back - but the XP machine wasn't getting the IP address it was being given.

I swapped out the NIC (a 3Com 3C905) for an older 3C509-Combi job, and the problem went away. Anyone know what might have been screwed on the old card? Obviously there was *some* traffic moving between the two machines - but not enough?

And finally - a broadband question...

Anyone know how you find out the following:
(a) *Where* your local telephone exchange is so you can work out how far away it is
(b) *When* BT plan on ADSL enabling it

'Cos I'm dying for a broadband connection.... I've used BT's site to ask whether it's available for me - and the damn site can't even work out if my exchange belongs to BT (which it does), let alone if it supports ADSL or not...

Cable's out of the question because there isn't any where I live.

Satellite is just too expensive at the moment, and anyway - I don't want the latency it gives me (no online Counterstrike you see )

And as far as I know - no-one is offering wireless xDSL anywhere near me (shame)...

Thanks chaps...

Bry

PS - I'm in Borough Green in Kent, so if anyone's a neighbour and can help me out with the broadband thing, I'd appreciate it! I know there's a fella lives just up the way from me with a P1 - but don't know if he's online here....

dsmith

Puff,

That is because (like me) where you live qualifies as "the sticks" and therefore has a snowballs chance in hell of getting adsl

p.s. did you get my mail ?

Deano

BryanC

Puff,

1) The names "Bryan" not "Barry"

2) The BTOpenworld site is the very one I was complaining about in my post - it can't even work out that I'm *ON* a BT exchange, let alone whether it's ADSL enabled or not. And there's nowhere on the site (that I've discovered anyway) that gives an upgrade schedule for the exchange, or that tells you where it's physically located.

3) I guess I must qualify as living in "the styx" too.... Snowball's in hell would stand a better chance methinks...

4) I also guess that means I have to hope that there are "200+" people in my area who'd like xDSL and that the wireless xDSL people (the company name of which escapes me presently) will therefore set a mast up somewhere near me.

stevencotton

Do you have a /dev/ppp0? But first things first, upgrade your kernel.

Steve.

BryanC

If I didn't have a /dev/ppp0 would I be able to do manual dial outs? Cos I can - with no trouble at all - it's only Diald which is failing... (I can't actually check though, it's my home machine, and here I am, stuck at work, looking longingly at the sunshine...)

Why should I upgrade the kernel? I'm going to anyway....but why in this case should I?

stevencotton

The kernels that come with the distribution are usually fairly old compared with the latest released kernel, first thing I do with a Linux install is upgrade it to the current.

I presume you're using some pppd to connect to your provider, I don't know whether you're using a modem or some other hardware to connect but all diald does is look for packets that seem like they need to be routed externally, then sets the ppp connection up so it's all transparent. If you're using a different device for dial-up other than /dev/ppp0 then you'll need to tell diald to route via there instead.

Steve.

boxst

Hello Bryan

I live near to you (well, not that far anyway, on the other side of Sevenoaks!).

I can answer (some) of your BroadBand questions:

The checker you should be using is this one: www.bt.com/broadband. I have typed in the telephone number / postcode of a shop in Borough Green and it is included in the review for June. What you need to do is get lots of people to register an interest and then it may happen.

The company that is offering to give you wireless ADSL is www.tele2.co.uk. You should note that it is 100 businesses!

Any more questions, let me know.

Steve.

BryanC

Cheers for that info on Broadband!

That site does indeed produce more info than the btopenworld one - so all I have to do now is get a few more locals interested and I might be in luck!

Bry

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Barry

Ain't got a clue re the linuxy qs but www.bt.com/openworld should provide the answers you want regarding exchanges and whether/when you can get ADSL etc

The site works for me but the answer is NO



[Edited by Puff The Magic Wagon! - 4/12/2002 10:57:23 AM]