Can't connect to the internet

[tech291083]

Hi,

I am using Fedora Core 5 32+ bit and suddenly when I open the firefox there is no connection to the net. I have not changed any settings at all. At boot it fails to get an ip but it does detect my Realtek card. The card is active as I have just checked it from the network card control gui. I checked the bios and network/lan card is also enabled there as well. This is driving me nuts. Help me please. Thanks.

[John A]

Is there any way for you to verify the internet connection itself? To me, it sounds like this is an ISP related problem and not Linux, because Linux detected your network card.

Tests you can try:

Ping:

ping google.com

(Should return packets, "cannot look up host" is a sign the network's down. Quit with CTRL-C.)

Refreshing DHCP:

dhcpcd eth0

Where eth0 is your network card. Requires root access.

If you've got a router, you may want to try a DHCP refresh on that to, and check the network status of both your WAN and LAN. Make sure everything looks OK.

[tech291083]

Ping:

ping google.com

Refreshing DHCP:

dhcpcd eth0

Where eth0 is your network card. Requires root access.

The ping command said "Unknown host"

I am using Realtek (RTL) 8139c as my network card.

Here what I got when I tried:

/sbin/ifconfig -a

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:C0:9F:BB:BA:57
inet addr:169.254.75.254 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:9fff:febb:ba57/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:41 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:5384 (5.2 KiB)
Interrupt:6

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2154 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2154 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2756707 (2.6 MiB) TX bytes:2756707 (2.6 MiB)

sit0 Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# /sbin/route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0

I do not understand what it says in return though. After applying the above said 2 commands in the terminal. Can you help me, this is really weird. All was fine until 3-4 days ago. Thanks.

[John A]

Your DHCP is acting up. IP addresses of 169.254.*.* indicate that the address was the result of a failed attempt to get an IP address with the dhcpcd command.

If dhcpcd doesn't change your IP address from 169.254.*.*, then you should definitely contact your ISP as it seems like this is something to do with your ISP. Especially the fact that you said you didn't change anything; it's most likely you didn't. ;)

[tech291083]

Your DHCP is acting up. IP addresses of 169.254.*.* indicate that the address was the result of a failed attempt to get an IP address with the dhcpcd command.

Thanks, so it means that whenever ones gets an ip address like 169.254.*.* there has been a problem with the internet connection right? I just searched online and came across this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network

If you scroll down to the bottom of it, there is one line which says

If a network address cannot be obtained via DHCP, an address from 169.254.1.0 to 169.254.254.255 is assigned randomly.

That means you are right. Cheers I will contacct my isp asap. Cheers.