If you are using BSNL broadband and also has MSwindows, contact BSNL technician to set the BSNL modem to DHCP ( i.e. UserID/password configured in the website of the Modem(i.e.192.168..1.1) supplied by BSNl..  If you click browser, automatically open the website. If suceeded in MSwindows, there is no problem with Ubuntu. To test use LiveCDubuntu - go to firefox browser - in address field  type any website you choose like yahoo  gmail etc. wait for few minutes, it will open relevant webage without any efforts on your part.  If LiveCD works, installed will also work <div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 13, 2008 9:10 PM, Anurag Mishra <<a href="mailto:mishranurag@gmail.com">mishranurag@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Dear Friends, I got so many responses for offer to help my parents with Broadband. The problem is that when the command sudo ppoeconf is issued we get this error "sudo: unable to lookup (none) via gethostbyname()". In fact sudo with any command was not working. It appeared that that administrative privileges were gone. We restarted the computer and edited /etc/hosts and added the username at the end of <a href="http://127.0.0.1" target="_blank">127.0.0.1</a> localhost. This appeared to fix the problem and sudo started working (we tested). Then again we issued sudo ppoeconf and we got the same error.  We checked sudo again with other command and administrative privileges were lost again.   Looks like ppoeconf caused these privileges to loose. Any ideas? Anurag *********************************** Anurag Mishra Graduate Research Assistant, Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA-24061. Phone: (540) 231 -2083 (office) (540) 239-4436 (cell) -- ubuntu-in mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-in@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-in@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in </a> </blockquote></div>