[buug] Freebsd 5.3 and internet access problems.

[Michael Paoli]

Quoting Rohan Mendonca <rvmss at yahoo.com>:

> I am new to freebsd. I want to move from windows to
> freebsd.
> 
> I have just installed 5.3 on my computer.
> I am running this computer behind a router which is
> connected to a cable modem. The router has dhcp
> disabled and I assign ip addresses to all the
> computers attached to it. 
> I managed to configure the ethernet card with a static
> ip.
> I am able to ping the card. I can also ping the
> router.
> I can ping the freebsd computer from a windows
> computer on the network.
> 
> I have 2 problems.
> 
> 1. I cannot access the internet using opera in
> xwindows.
> It say's "hosts not found" for any web site even
> though 
> I can ping the router, the ethernet card.
> what am I doing wrong?
> I do not think I have icfw enabled.
> Please help!
> 
> 2. I seem to need to enable the ethernet card
> everytime I logon/restart the computer. How do I set
> it up so that it is enabled permanently.

Well, I'm not exactly a BSD expert (perhaps some BSD folks can add
information on details specific to BSD), but you may want to start,
for item 1., looking at DNS and routing.  Can you ping or otherwise reach
IP addresses beyond your router (e.g. Internet IPs)?  How is your routing
configured, for example, does your BSD host have its configuration
set to use your router (or other suitable IP(s)) for default router,
at least on applicable subnet(s)?  Typically netstat -nr and/or
route -n or similar tools can help you see how your routing is set.
Tools such as ping, traceroute, and tcptraceroute can also come in handy
for isolating location and/or nature of problem.  Check the man pages (syntax,
options, and precise tools may vary on your operating system flavor).  Once IP
connectivity works okay (e.g. you can ping or connect to the IP addresses you
expect to be able to reach), then
you can check on DNS.  Are you able to successfully use dig or nslookup or
similar tools to resolve DNS names to IP addresses?  Have you checked over
you DNS configuration, e.g. /etc/nsswitch.conf and /etc/resolv.conf, or
whatever equivalent files/capabilities you may have.

On item 2., for persistent configurations - such as wanting your system to
come up with the same IP on the same interface when it's rebooted, there
are typically rc scripts, and frequently configuration files which rc
files read for such configuration information.  I'm sure BSD has some
convention on that, but I don't know what it is off hand.  When I encounter
a UNIX/LINUX/BSD system where I'm not familiar with their particular
convention, I usually start by examining the /etc/inittab file,
to determine what gets launched, how, and in what order, when a system
boots.  By perusing and searching enough files, it typically becomes
pretty clear where such configuration changes belong.  In the case of
being quite new to BSD (and perhaps also UNIX/LINUX), it might be easier
to ask around and/or do some searching (e.g. Google) for information on
how to do the typical network configuration tasks on BSD.

Also, if you're in a DHCP, or mixed static/DHCP environment, you may want
to be careful with the specific IP(s) used, to avoid potential conflicts.
This could mean picking static IP(s) in a particular range, and/or tweaking
the DHCP server configuration so as to avoid potential conflicts.