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hardware necessary.  So whatever problems you are having, is most likely
due to a configuration problem.  The best way to resolve this is to go
back to basics.

(Note: all commands mentioned below should be executed from the root
account.  To login as root, simply open a terminal and type 'su'.  It will
then ask you for a password.  Type in your password and hit return.  You
can do all of this from inside KDE or GNOME or whatever environment you
are using.)

1.  Make sure your computer was configured for networking.  Usually, the
network setup is done at bootup.  Thus, once bootup completes, run the
'ifconfig' command.  This will display all the network interfaces you have
setup.  You should see something like this:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:A0:CC:25:50:E1
          inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2140 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2846 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
          Interrupt:12 Base address:0xec00

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:3924  Metric:1
          RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

The numbers will be different.  But make sure the 'eth0' entry is present.
If it is not, then this is your first problem.  Your system was not
configured with networking.  You have to reconfigure the system.  I don't
use RedHat, so I can't help you here.

Note also the 'RUNNING' flag.  This means the interface is active.  If you
don't see the RUNNING flag, it means the network configuration at bootup
failed for some reason.  The bootup messages should have some information
about what went wrong.  You can try type 'dmesg' to re-display the bootup
message.  If you are having this problem, you need to post the output of
'dmesg' to get further assistance.  Fortunately, the other emails seem to
imply this is not the problem.  So let's continue.

2.  RoadRunner requires DHCP.  This is a program that configures your
computer to work with the RR server.  It obtains the IP address that your
computer will use.  If the DHCP client program did its job correctly, the
output of 'ifconfig' should have something like "inet addr:192.168.1.2"
in the eth0 entry.  This is my computer's IP address number.  RR will most
likely assign you a different one.  Usually something that looks like
24.XX.YY.ZZ.  They use different numbers for different areas.  But they
always seem to start with 24.xx.xx.xx.

Another way to make sure DHCP is running is to list all of the processes.
You do this by typing 'ps aux'.  A list of all processes will be displayed
on your screen.  Look for 'dhcpcd' in the list.  If you can't find this
program in the list, then the DHCP client program is not running, and this
is a problem.  The easiest way to fix this is just un-install and
re-install it.  If the install asks you whether to automatically start
dhcpcd at bootup, say yes.

3.  If you get this far, it means everything is setup correctly.  To
verify this, make sure the various files needed for networking is present.
The DHCP client usually creates a file called resolv.conf in the /etc
directory.  This file contains the IP address number for the DNS server.
A DNS server converts a hostname, like www.nbc.com into an IP number like
209.247.72.66.  I do not recommend making your own version of this file,
unless you know what you're doing.  Hopefully, a reboot will re-generate a
new copy of this file and overwrite the one that Ray asked you to create.
Type 'cat /etc/resolv.conf'.  The output should look something like:

domain hawaii.rr.com
nameserver 24.25.227.34
nameserver 24.25.227.36
nameserver 24.25.227.32

This output says there are three DNS servers that you can use.  If the
first one fails, the next one will be used, etc.  Next, the DHCP client
should have also configured the routing table in the Linux system.  To
verify this, type 'netstat -rn'.  My computer has this table:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags   MSS Window  irtt Iface
192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U         0 0          0 eth1
24.94.72.0      0.0.0.0         255.255.248.0   U         0 0          0 eth0
0.0.0.0         24.94.72.1      0.0.0.0         UG        0 0          0 eth0

Look under the 'Flags' column for 'UG'.  The 'G' says this entry is the
_gateway_ for your computer.  This is how your computer accesses the
Internet.  The IP address of the gateway is under the 'Gateway' column.
In my case, it is 24.94.72.1.  Most likely, you will see a different
number here.  If you can not find this entry, it means DHCP failed.  I can
only think of two possible causes.  1. the Linux kernel was not compiled
with networking support, so no routing table is present.  You need another
kernel in this case.  2. the RR DHCP server is down or is rejecting the
client.  If the later, it is an RR problem.  I have no idea how you go
about proving this.  Let's hope this is not the problem.  ;-)

4.  If everything above is ok, then it means your system is ready to
network with the world.  To test it, try to ping the various components of
your network.  I would ping the gateway first;

ping 24.94.72.1

If this fails, it means the RR computer is down.  There is nothing you can
do at this point.  RR has to fix their computer.  Notice I used the IP
number instead of a hostname.  This is because I haven't verified the DNS
server yet.  So the next thing to do would be to verify the DNS server.

ping 24.25.227.34

There were three listed in my version of resolve.conf.  So try the others
if one fails.  Once you proved that a DNS server is 'reachable', test it
out by issuing a lookup.  Type 'nslookup www.nbc.com'.  I get the
following result from this command:

Server:  hnlmail2.hawaii.rr.com
Address:  24.25.227.34

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    nbc.com
Address:  209.247.72.66
Aliases:  www.nbc.com

If all of this worked.  It is time to try accessing a host on the
Internet.  Type 'ping www.nbc.com'.  If this works, then you are ready to
surf the net.  ;-)  Note, some hosts on the Internet might be down.  So a
failure with ping doesn't always mean your connection is broken.  I
usually ping ucsd.edu to verify my connection is active.

The above procedure is always good to know.  Even if you get your network
working, it might get broken for one reason or another.  Knowing how to
track down the problem is always useful.  By the way, all of the commands
I mentioned above are generic Unix commands.  Most any Unix system has
them.  Only the display output differ in minor ways.  So you can use the
same procedure to track down network problems on any Unix system.  I
personally run Debian.

Hope this helps.  If you still run into problems, email us the output of
each of the commands I mentioned above.  Good luck.

--jc
--
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org